Books published by publisher Praeger

This scholarly analysis of the music of Taylor Swift identifies how and why she is one of the early 21st century's most recognizable and most popular stars.• Provides the only scholarly critical analysis of the songs and recordings of megastar Taylor Swift• Places Swift, her work, and her public stances in the context of her generation and its definition of "empowerment" and "feminism"• Explores Swift's work as an extension of the early 1970s' confessional singer-songwriter movement

Drawing on oral narratives and archival sources gathered in Berlin, this study explores how some 35 Berliners have woven personal memories, their city's divided past, and their nation's complex historical legacy into cohesive life narratives and collective identities. Redding argues that daily experience during the final years of World War II inadvertently prepared German youth for defeat and occupation. While postwar officials lamented youth's apparent apathy, young Berliners were in fact applying lessons in pragmatism and self-reliance learned as National Socialist society crumbled in 1944 and 1945. Although competing political forces strove to rapidly remobilize German youth, young Berliners took advantage of destabilized sociopolitical structures in their war-torn city to assert autonomy and pursue personal initiatives.Their retrospective narratives reveal creative efforts to claim for themselves the normal pleasures of modern youth in the midst of rubble. These accounts also demonstrate how Cold War ideologies and loyalties have informed memories of daily life in Allied occupied Berlin. In a broader sense, the study sheds new light on the collective experiences, memories, and self-perceptions of a generation of Germans who grew up in a world defined by World War II and Allied occupation, rebuilt their devastated society under Cold War parameters, and eventually negotiated the unification of the two successor states.

As Laura Linder asserts, increased concentration of media ownership has resulted in the homogenization of public discourse. Packaged, commercialized messages have replaced the personalized and localized opinions necessary for the uninhibited marketplace of ideas envisioned in the First Amendment. Narrowcast outlets such as talk radio give vent to individual voices, but only to a limited, predefined audience. The media have led a social shift toward splintering and compartmentalization, away from pluralism and consensus.Public access television provides an alternative to this trend, requiring active public participation in the process of developing community-based programming through the dominant medium of television. Today, more than 2,000 public access television centers exist in the United States, producing more than 10,000 hours of original, local programming every week. But public access television remains underutilized, even as deregulation and growing interest in other telecommunications delivery systems pose a potential threat to the long-term viability of public access television. In this comprehensive review of the background and development of public access television, Linder offers all the information needed to understand the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings as well as the nuts and bolts of public access television in the United States. Must reading for students and scholars involved with mass media in the United States and professionals in the television field.

In this exciting new study of a largely overlooked but nevertheless extremely important figure in American music, author Allen Cohen explores the relationship between theory and practice in the works of Howard Hanson, a prominent twentieth-century composer, conductor, and educator. In Hanson's book Harmonic Materials of Modern Music, he proffered a theory of classification of all possible pitch-class collections in the chromatic scale, showing ways of deriving larger collections from smaller ones, and demonstrating significant relationships among them. This theory anticipated in many ways the standard formulations of music set theory, while also influencing Hanson's own compositions.Following an introduction and biographical overview, Howard Hanson: Theory and Practice summarizes its subject's theoretical writings, examines their usefulness for both musicologists and composers, and analyzes in particular two of Hanson's musical pieces. In this way, Howard Hanson represents an exciting and highly educational look at a man and his work, both unacknowledged for too long.

The safety of our food supply is an environmental health issue that affects every American citizen. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than 76 million people in the United States suffer from foodborne illnesses every year. Microbiological contamination―bacteria, viruses, and parasites―is the leading cause of foodborne illness. Morrone faults the media for focusing the anxieties of the American public on such issues as irradiated food, genetically modified foods, and mad cow disease, while ignoring the microbial foodborne pathogens that are running amok in our food supply―except when point-source outbreaks of E. coli in spinach and green onions or salmonella in peanut butter sicken thousands of people at once.Many readers will be alarmed to learn from Poisons on Our Plates that there is no federal environmental health policy or agency that controls the bacteria and viruses in our food supply. The FDA Food Code and various voluntary systems overseen by local health departments are woefully inadequate. Drawing on disturbing stories told by food safety professionals as well as on statistical studies, the author paints a grimly fascinating picture of the impact of bacteria and viruses on our food supply and how they can make us sick. Morrone examines the increased risks that come with the rise in food imports from high-contamination countries such as China and Mexico. She advocates major changes to our nation's environmental health policies in order to control the growing dangers that foodborne illness pose to public health.

From the very beginning, religious leaders have influenced the course of American history—sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. This book examines those Christian sermons that set or changed the course of the nation.What did 18th-century preacher Jonathan Edwards really mean to convey with is "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" sermon? What Southern minister did most to encourage secession of the Southern states from the Union? And why does Martin Luther King Jr. need to be remembered for more than his "I Have a Dream" speech? This book examines the sermons that have shaped American history from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the Obama administration. It provides extended biographical treatments of those who preached them, thereby providing readers with the historical context of the sermon, an explanation of what made these orations so effective, and an understanding of the role of religion in American history.Author O.C. Edwards Jr. supplies insightful and interesting coverage of Christian preachers and sermons that will engage anyone interested in America's religious or social history. The book addresses the religious philosophies and speeches of individuals such as William Sloan Coffin Jr., Russell Conwell, Charles Coughlin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Billy Graham, Anne Hutchinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Patricia Merchant, John Winthrop, and Jeremiah Wright.• Provides approachable information that helps any reader understand the role of religion in American history• Supplies insights from the author of the award-winning A History of Preaching hailed as a definitive work by critics• Presents accurate and scholarly yet lively and engaging coverage of important preachers and sermons throughout American history

This scholarly analysis of the music of Taylor Swift identifies how and why she is one of the early 21st century's most recognizable and most popular stars.By the age of 13, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift had already inked a development deal with a major record label. This early milestone was an appropriate predictor of what accomplishments were to come. Now a superstar artist with an international fanbase of millions and several critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums, Swift has established herself as one of the most important musicians of the 21st century. This accessible book serves Taylor Swift fans as well as students of contemporary popular music and popular culture, critically examining all of this young artist's work to date.The book's organization is primarily chronological, covering Taylor Swift's album and single releases in order of release date while also documenting the elements of her music and personality that have made her popular with fans of country music and pop music across a surprisingly diverse age range of listeners. The chapters address how Swift's songs have been viewed by some fans as anthems of empowerment or messages of encouragement, particularly by members of the LGBTQ community, those who have been bullied or been seen as outsiders, and emerging artists. The final chapter places Swift's work and her public persona in the context of her times with respect to her use of and relationship with technology―for example, her use of social media and songwriting technology―and her expressions of a new type of feminism that is unlike the feminism of the 1970s.• Provides the only scholarly critical analysis of the songs and recordings of megastar Taylor Swift• Places Swift, her work, and her public stances in the context of her generation and its definition of "empowerment" and "feminism"• Explores Swift's work as an extension of the early 1970s' confessional singer-songwriter movement

From the very beginning, religious leaders have influenced the course of American history―sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. This book examines those Christian sermons that set or changed the course of the nation.What did 18th-century preacher Jonathan Edwards really mean to convey with is "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" sermon? What Southern minister did most to encourage secession of the Southern states from the Union? And why does Martin Luther King Jr. need to be remembered for more than his "I Have a Dream" speech? This book examines the sermons that have shaped American history from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the Obama administration. It provides extended biographical treatments of those who preached them, thereby providing readers with the historical context of the sermon, an explanation of what made these orations so effective, and an understanding of the role of religion in American history.Author O.C. Edwards Jr. supplies insightful and interesting coverage of Christian preachers and sermons that will engage anyone interested in America's religious or social history. The book addresses the religious philosophies and speeches of individuals such as William Sloan Coffin Jr., Russell Conwell, Charles Coughlin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Billy Graham, Anne Hutchinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Patricia Merchant, John Winthrop, and Jeremiah Wright.• Provides approachable information that helps any reader understand the role of religion in American history• Supplies insights from the author of the award-winning A History of Preaching hailed as a definitive work by critics• Presents accurate and scholarly yet lively and engaging coverage of important preachers and sermons throughout American history