Books with author Michael Austin

Over the course of a year, Michael Austin--an English professor and literary critic who was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--read the Book of Mormon for the first time in more than 30 years and wrote weekly blog posts detailing his insights and challenges with the text. The 44 essays in Buried Treasures, adapted from those original posts, show a trained scholar and literary critic grappling with the foundational text of his own religious tradition and finding surprising things that he had never seen before. The essays in this volume draw a picture of the Book of Mormon that is rarely seen in the devotional writings of those who consider it a scripture or the polemical writings of those who consider it a fraud. For Austin, the Book of Mormon, whatever its origin, is a complex literary and spiritual text full of sophisticated narratives, recurring patterns, and big ideas that can sustain a high level of critical analysis. Buried Treasures shows what happens when a well-trained reader approaches this text with fresh eyes and an open mind and unearths the treasures that have been hidden in plain sight for almost 200 years. Michael Austin is the author of seven previous books, including Rereading Job, We Must Not Be Enemies, and the bestselling textbook, Reading the World: Ideas that Matter. He is currently the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of Evansville in Evansville Indiana. “I discovered in the Book of Mormon a profoundly human record of people struggling with their relationship to God and to each other. It has all the messiness one would expect of a record compiled over a thousand years, with multiple narrative perspectives, biases, agendas, and blind spots—as the authors and narrators groped towards an understanding of the Kingdom of God. It is a book that can bear multiple readings from multiple perspectives without exhausting its treasures. And it is a book that Latter-day Saints should never be ashamed to place alongside the great books of the world’s traditions, both religious and secular.” &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp--Michael Austin, from the Introduction

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THAT'S NOT WHAT THEY MEANT! RECLAIMING THE FOUNDING FATHERS FROM AMERICA'S RIGHT WING! This follow-up single is a common-sense discussion of gun rights, gun control, and the often-diverging views of America's Founding Fathers. Acknowledging that the Constitution enshrines a clear and undeniable right to self-defense, and arguing that some limitations on this right have always existed, Austin charts a thoughtful and moderate course through the clashing absolutes that have dominated the gun-control debate for a generation.

In 2011, Glenn Beck released a "modern translation" of the Federalist Papers and a new biography of George Washington. In the same year, Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, published a book in which he argued that the Founding Fathers intended the individual states to be more powerful than the federal government. Each of these books, and many others published over the past few years, presents the Founding Fathers as a group of wise, philosophically indistinguishable statesmen who spoke about timeless issues with a unified voice. In the place of rigorous history, the authors substitute out-of-context proof texts; in the place of real analysis of the remarkable individuals who created America, they offer us a collective mythology of the founding era. In That's Not What They Meant! Professor Michael Austin examines dozens of books, articles, speeches, and radio broadcasts by such figures as Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Larry Schweikart, and David Barton to expose the deep historical flaws in their use of America's founding history. In contrast to their misleading method of citing proof texts to serve a narrow agenda, Austin allows the Founding Fathers to speak for themselves, situating all quotations in the proper historical context. What emerges is a true historical picture of men who often disagreed with one another on such crucial issues as federal power, judicial review, and the separation of church and state. As Austin shows, the real legacy of the Founding Fathers to us is a political process: a system of disagreement, debate, and compromise that has kept democracy vibrant in America for more than two hundred years. Austin's carefully researched and rigorously argued book is essential reading for anyone seeking the accurate historical background to many of the hot-button political debates of today.

In 2011, Glenn Beck released a "modern translation" of the Federalist Papers and a new biography of George Washington. In the same year, Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, published a book in which he argued that the Founding Fathers intended the individual states to be more powerful than the federal government. Each of these books, and many others published over the past few years, presents the Founding Fathers as a group of wise, philosophically indistinguishable statesmen who spoke about timeless issues with a unified voice. In the place of rigorous history, the authors substitute out-of-context proof texts; in the place of real analysis of the remarkable individuals who created America, they offer us a collective mythology of the founding era. In That's Not What They Meant! Professor Michael Austin examines dozens of books, articles, speeches, and radio broadcasts by such figures as Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Larry Schweikart, and David Barton to expose the deep historical flaws in their use of America's founding history. In contrast to their misleading method of citing proof texts to serve a narrow agenda, Austin allows the Founding Fathers to speak for themselves, situating all quotations in the proper historical context. What emerges is a true historical picture of men who often disagreed with one another on such crucial issues as federal power, judicial review, and the separation of church and state. As Austin shows, the real legacy of the Founding Fathers to us is a political process: a system of disagreement, debate, and compromise that has kept democracy vibrant in America for more than two hundred years. Austin's carefully researched and rigorously argued book is essential reading for anyone seeking the accurate historical background to many of the hot-button political debates of today.Michael Austin (Wichita, KS) is the author or editor of six books, including Reading the World: Ideas That Matter. He is provost, vice president for Academic Affairs, and professor of English at Newman University.

For more than 2,000 years, Confucius and Confucian thought have defined the way that a large part of the world approaches questions of human nature, government authority, and the role of society. Yet Confucius himself remains largely unknown in the West. His Analects are famously difficult to understand, and, while most people know his name, very few could articulate a single idea that he had. WHY CONFUCIUS MATTERS, the second volume in Michael Austin's BOYS NAMED TZU series seeks to change this with clear explanations of Confucius's most important principles and straightforward applications of his theories to 21st century concerns.

Follow the rollicking, surreal adventures of a young boy as he races to get to school on time.Smitty is never late for school. Not when his shoes get stuck in a sea of thick, black tar. Not when the sky rains snowmen down on the city streets. Not when he uses his coat for a sail to catch a gale and is swallowed up by a whale. Or when he encounters a robot from Mars eating up cars…or a very, very hungry T. Rex!With rhyming language and a vivid imagination, author Mike Reiss demonstrates that, for some children, getting to school on time can be an adventure. Illustrator Michael Austin’s humorous, exaggerated images colorfully bring to life the mischievous fun of the text. The surprise ending will delight young readers as they cheer on Smitty and his heroic efforts to beat the school bell.

Follow the rollicking, surreal adventures of a young boy as he races to get to school on time.Smitty is never late for school. Not when his shoes get stuck in a sea of thick, black tar. Not when the sky rains snowmen down on the city streets. Not when he uses his coat for a sail to catch a gale and is swallowed up by a whale. Or when he encounters a robot from Mars eating up cars…or a very, very hungry T. Rex!With rhyming language and a vivid imagination, author Mike Reiss demonstrates that, for some children, getting to school on time can be an adventure. Illustrator Michael Austin’s humorous, exaggerated images colorfully bring to life the mischievous fun of the text. The surprise ending will delight young readers as they cheer on Smitty and his heroic efforts to beat the school bell.

Ticky-Ticky is a twelve-year-old with a secret: He is the youngest son of the infamous trickster Anansi the Spider-man. Hiding in the human world, Ticky-Ticky fears his father’s enemies will recognize and punish him for being the butt of Anansi’s embarrassing pranks. Now, the joke’s on Ticky-Ticky. A school incident forces him to follow his missing father’s footsteps on a dangerous quest across time and reality. Riding a magical ghost-bat canoe with a dog of the dead as his guide, Ticky-Ticky encounters Anansi’s folkloric foes out for revenge. After a lifetime of avoiding his father’s legacy, can Ticky-Ticky find his father before he loses his life or even worse: becomes just like him? This is part one of a trilogy.