Weak Foundations

Héctor Lindo-Fuentes provides the first in-depth economic history of El Salvador during the crucial decades of the nineteenth century. Before independence in 1821, the isolated territory that we now call El Salvador was a subdivision of the Captaincy General of Guatemala and had only 250,000 inhabitants. Both indigo production, the source of wealth for the country's tiny elite and its main link to the outside world, and subsistence agriculture, which engaged the majority of the population, involved the use of agricultural techniques that had not changed for two hundred years. By 1900, however, El Salvador's primary export was coffee, a crop that demanded relatively sophisticated agricultural techniques and the support of an elaborate internal finance and marketing network. The coffee planters came to control the state apparatus, writing laws that secured their access to land, imposing taxes that paid for a transportation network designed to service their plantations, building ports to expedite coffee exports, and establishing a banking system to finance the new crop. Weak Foundations shows how the parallel process of state-building and expansion of the coffee industry resulted in the formation of an oligarchy that was to rule El Salvador during the twentieth century. Historians and economists interested in the "routes to underdevelopment" followed by Latin American and other "Third World" countries will find this analysis thorough and provocative.

In this work Schum develops a general theory of evidence as it is understood and applied across a broad range of disciplines and practical undertakings. He include insights from law, philosophy, logic, probability, semiotics, artificial intelligence, psychology and history.

Introductory technical guidance for civil, structural and geotechnical engineers and construction managers interested in design and construction of foundations for buildings and other structures. Here is what is discussed: 1. BACKFILL FOR SUBSURFACE STRUCTURES 2. BEARING CAPACITY ANALYSIS 3. DEEP FOUNDATIONS 4. EARTHWORK FOR FOUNDATIONS 5. ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF SOIL AND ROCK 6. EXCAVATION FOR STRUCTURES 7. FIELD AND LABORATORY INVESTIGATIONS FOR FOUNDATIONS IN EXPANSIVE SOILS 8. FOUNDATION DESIGN IN COLD REGIONS 9. FOUNDATIONS ON FILL AND BACKFILLING 10. FOUNDATIONS IN AREAS OF SIGNIFICANT FROST PENETRATION.

Interpreting the History of a Region in Crisis / Robert H. Holden -- Land and Climate: Natural Constraints and Socio-Environmental Transformations / Anthony Goebel McDermott -- Regaining Ground: Indigenous Populations and Territories / Peter H. Herlihy, Matthew L. Fahrenbruch, Taylor A. Tappan -- The Ancient Civilizations / William R. Fowler -- Marginalization, Assimilation, and Resurgence: The Indigenous Peoples since Independence / Wolfgang Gabbert -- The Spanish Conquest? / Laura E. Matthew -- Spanish Colonial Rule / Stephen Webre -- The Kingdom of Guatemala as a Cultural Crossroads / Brianna Leavitt-Alcántara -- From Kingdom to Republics, 1808-1840 / Aaron Pollack -- The Political Economy / Robert G. Williams -- State Making and Nation Building / David Díaz Arias -- Central America and the United States / Michel Gobat -- The Cold War: Authoritarianism, Empire, and Social Revolution / Joaquín M. Chávez -- Central America since the 1990s: Crime, Violence, and the Pursuit of Democracy / Christine J. Wade -- The Rise and Retreat of the Armed Forces / Orlando J. Pérez and Randy Pestana -- Religion, Politics, and the State / Bonar L. Hernández Sandoval -- Women and Citizenship: Feminist and Suffragist Movements, 1880-1957 / Eugenia Rodríguez Sáenz -- Literature, Society, and Politics / Werner Mackenbach -- Guatemala / David Carey Jr. -- Honduras / Dario A. Euraque -- El Salvador / Erik Ching -- Nicaragua / Julie A. Charlip -- Costa Rica / Iván Molina -- Panama / Michael E. Donoghue -- Belize / Mark Moberg.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Spatial Information Theory, COSIT '99, held in Stade, Germany, in August 1999. The 30 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 70 submissions. The book is divided into topical sections on landmarks and navigation, route directions, abstraction and spatial hierarchies, spatial reasoning calculi, ontology of space, visual representation and reasoning, maps and routes, and granularity and qualitative abstraction.

This text provides a comprehensive understanding of the foundational literacy knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes necessary to guide emerging readers and writers in early childhood. Centered on the critical question of why some children learn to read easily, while others do not, this text walks readers through developmentally appropriate goal setting based on the foundational literacy skills that are critical for preschool and kindergarten children to develop. Written in an authoritative yet accessible style, chapters offer instructional strategies, insights, and scenarios from educators, self-reflection, and a variety of methods for implementation. Each chapter also includes differentiation for children with language and learning challenges as well as dual language learners, exploring methods for valuing the home language while building critical literacy skills in the classroom. Providing critical skills for guiding all emerging readers to an independent reading level, this is an essential resource for both students in early childhood, literacy, and special education courses and educators in early childhood public education, non-profit preschool settings such as Head Start, home and daycare settings, and private and corporate care and education centers.