Books published by publisher Praeger

Petticoats and Pinstripes: Portraits of Women in Wall Street's History provides a fascinating chronological account of the contributions of women on Wall Street through profiles of selected individuals that set their achievements in the context of the prevailing times. The book documents how women frequently assumed financial roles as a temporary palliative to the nation's ills, only to be cast aside once conditions improved, and how they were often restrained from financial endeavors by various factors, including American legal, political, economic, and cultural norms. Author Sheri J. Caplan describes the accomplishments of women in the financial world against the backdrop of the general advancement of women's rights and the evolution of gender-based roles in society, and identifies the primary factors in the development of a greater female role in finance: wartime urgency, personal necessity, technological change, and financial education.The book also contains two quick-reference appendices, one describing the significance of particular women and a second that provides a chronology of milestones.

This book spotlights the 25 most important sitcoms to ever air on American television―shows that made generations laugh, challenged our ideas regarding gender, family, race, marital roles, and sexual identity, and now serve as time capsules of U.S. history.What was the role of The Jeffersons in changing views regarding race and equality in America in the 1970s? How did The Golden Girls affect how society views older people? Was The Office an accurate (if exaggerated) depiction of the idiosyncrasies of being employees in a modern workplace? How did the writers of The Simpsons make it acceptable to air political satire through the vehicle of an animated cartoon ostensibly for kids?Readers of this book will see how television situation comedies have consistently held up a mirror for American audiences to see themselves―and the reflections have not always been positive or purely comedic. The introduction discusses the history of sitcoms in America, identifying their origins in radio shows and explaining how sitcom programming evolved to influence the social and cultural norms of our society. The shows are addressed chronologically, in sections delineated by decade. Each entry presents background information on the show, including the dates it aired, key cast members, and the network; explains why the show represents a notable turning point in American television; and provides an analysis of each sitcom that considers how the content was received by the American public and the lasting effects on the family unit, gender roles, culture for young adults, and minority and LGBT rights. The book also draws connections between important sitcoms and other shows that were influenced by or strikingly similar to these trendsetting programs. Lastly, a section of selections for further reading points readers to additional resources.• Identifies the reason each show was a turning point in American television and provides analysis of the issues and themes present in each sitcom, how the content was received by the American public, and the lasting effects of the program• Covers a time period of more than half a century, from I Love Lucy to Modern Family• Clearly demonstrates how television as well as American ideals and values have changed dramatically over a fairly short period of time

In this brilliantly original and highly accessible work, Thomas Szasz demonstrates the futility of analyzing the mind as a collection of brain functions. Instead of trying to unravel the riddle of a mythical entity called the mind, Szasz suggests that our task should be to understand and judge persons always as moral agents responsible for their own actions, not as victims of brain chemistry. This is Szasz's most ambitious work to date. In his best-selling book, The Myth of Mental Illness, he took psychiatry to task for misconstruing human conflict and coping as mental illness. In Our Right to Drugs, he exposed the irrationality and political opportunism that fuels the Drug War. In The Meaning of Mind, he warns that we misconstrue the dialogue within as a problem of consciousness and neuroscience, and do so at our own peril.In The Meaning of Mind, Thomas Szasz argues that only as a verb does the word mind mean something in the real world, namely, attending or heeding. Minding is the ability to pay attention and adapt to one's environment by using language to communicate with others and oneself. Viewing the mind as a potentially infinite variety of self-conversations is the key that unlocks many of the mysteries we associate with this concept. Modern neuroscience is a misdirected effort to explain mind in terms of brain functions. The claims and conclusions of the diverse academics and scientists who engage in this enterprise undermine the concepts of moral agency and personal responsibility. Szasz shows that the cognitive function of speech is to enable us to talk not only to others but to ourselves (in short, to be our own interlocutor), and that the view that mind is brain―embraced by both the scientific community and the popular press―is not an empirical finding but a rhetorical ruse concealing humanity's unceasing struggle to control persons by controlling the vocabulary. The discourse of brain-mind, unlike the discourse of man as moral agent, protects people from the dilemmas intrinsic to holding themselves responsible for their own actions and holding others responsible for theirs. Because we live in an age blessed by the fruits of materialist science, reductionist explanations of the relationship between brain and mind are more popular today than ever, making this book an indispensible addition to the seemingly recondite debate about, simply, who we are.

Through careful examination of primary documents, this book reveals that the true purpose of Zebulon Pike's western expedition in 1806–1807 was not innocent exploration of the West but an espionage mission in preparation for an American invasion of New Mexico.• Clarifies the true purpose of Zebulon Pike's 1806–1807 western journey and answers the question asked for more than 200 years: Was Pike an explorer or a spy?• Examines historical evidence that Pike's actual purpose was to conduct a military reconnaissance in preparation for an American invasion of New Mexico• Explains how Pike rightfully earned the title, "Father of the Santa Fe Trail," with the 1810 publication of his book, An Account of Expeditions

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor unleashed rampant racism and distrust towards all things alien, and it raised perplexing questions of national identity that still reverberate. Persons of Japanese ancestry were the victims of racist acts and governmental loyalty investigations, and, finally, of exclusion and imprisonment. The majority of Japanese Americans complied with government actions, including the drafting of Japanese Americans into military service, often viewing such service as an opportunity to display their allegiance to the United States. However, some 200 Japanese Americans drafted into the Army refused to serve in combat while their families languished in internment camps. Here, for the first time, the resisters' story is told in vivid detail, following many of them into the post-war years and assessing the ramifications of their actions on their lives.The history of Japanese Americans in World War II does not record the stories of these resisters. It does not mention the War Department Special Organization to which many of them were transferred or the individuals who were tried and sentenced by military courts to long prison terms. The 200 conscientious military resisters felt betrayed by the government and viewed the decision to imprison Japanese Americans as an immoral acquiescence to West Coast racism.Castelnuovo does not abandon the narrative with the end of World War II. Instead, she follows many of the resisters into the post-war years, assessing the ramifications of their actions on their lives as individuals and within the broader context of the Japanese American community. Happily, most of the resisters were eventually re-embraced by their community, but, until now, they have been forgotten by students of World War II. That is an oversight Soldiers of Conscience will certainly remedy.

Unconquered explores the complex world of Iroquois warfare, providing a narrative overview of nearly two hundred years of Iroquois conflict during the colonial era of North America. Detailing Iroquois wars against the French, English, Americans, and a host of Indian enemies, Unconquered builds upon decades of modern scholarship to reveal the vital importance of warfare in Iroquois society and culture, at the same time exploring the diverse motivations―especially Iroquoian spiritual and cultural beliefs―that guided such warfare.Economic competition and rivalry for trade were important factors in Iroquois warfare, but they often provided less motivation for waging war than Iroquoian spiritual and cultural beliefs, including the important tradition of the mourning war. Nor were European agendas particularly important to Iroquois warfare, except in that they occasionally coincided with Iroquois designs. Europeans influenced and incited, both directly and indirectly, conflict within the Iroquois League and with other Indian nations, but the peoples of the Iroquois League waged war according to their own cultural beliefs and by their own rules. In reality, the Iroquoi League rarely waged war against anyone. Rather its individual member nations drove the warfare often attributed to the whole, creating a shifting, amorphous political and military position that allowed member nations to pursue separate policies of war and peace against common foes and multiple enemies.Unconquered also seeks to dispel longstanding beliefs about the invincible Iroquois empire, myths that have been dispelled by focused academic studies, but still retain a powerful resonance among popular conceptions of the Iroquois League. While the Iroquois created far-reaching networks of trade and destroyed or dispersed Indian peoples along their borders, they created no expansive territorial empires. Nor were Iroquois warriors unequaled in battle. Europeans, Americans, and Indians defeated Iroquois warriors and burned Iroquois villages as often as they tasted defeat, and on more than one occasion they brought the Iroquois League to the brink of utter ruin. Yet the Iroquois were never completely destroyed.

A project management expert identifies methods for running any project successfully based on lessons learned from the exploits of two storied explorers.What could be more intriguing than a management book built around a gripping story of exploration? The 1911–12 race between British explorer Robert Scott and Norwegian Roald Amundsen to be first to the South Pole provides the rarest of case studies. Two teams carry out the same project. One is spectacularly successful; the other fails miserably. Just about everything about good―and bad―planning, management expert Fergus O'Connell maintains, can be learned from these leaders.The results of poor planning are not always as dire as they were for Scott. But in business, poor planning can have serious consequences, often because the same mistakes are repeated. Starting with an introduction that details their exploits, the book goes on to use Scott and Amundsen as examples of good and not-so-good leadership. It contrasts the difference in how the two men planned and executed their projects and how they led their teams, highlighting things that must be in place for success. What can happen when those things are ignored is also spelled out. Readers will come away from this book entertained and with a in-depth understanding of a new method for assessing the health of any project―and running it successfully.• Analyzes a familiar story from a unique point of view, using the endeavors of Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott to illustrate project management concepts• Offers a practical guide to running any project successfully • Motivates and encourages behavior change by demonstrating how a little planning beats a lot of firefighting• Shows that we can learn as much from others' failures as we can from their successes• Emphasizes the importance of taking the time to plan, even when operating in crisis mode

Through a new collection of primary documents about Japanese internment during World War II, this book enables a broader understanding of the injustice experienced by displaced people within the United States in the 20th century.• Enables readers to see—through primary documents comprising letters written by the internees and banker J. Elmer Moorish in Redwood City, CA—how Japanese-American citizens who were interned during World War II handled their financial affairs• Analyzes the interactions between Japanese Americans and Anglo-Americans during a period of widespread xenophobia and racial tension in the United States• Helps readers to better understand the important issues of citizenship and race in America during and just after World War II• Reveals new information on the day-to-day lives of Japanese Americans while residing in internment camps located in various areas of the United States

This book examines the countervailing arguments in the religious exemption debate and explains why this issue continues to be so heated and controversial in modern-day America.• Provides up-to-date coverage that highlights the full history of religious exemption cases from the 19th through 21st centuries• Presents a detailed analysis of the Hobby Lobby case that stemmed from a corporation's response to portions of the Affordable Care Act, an ongoing topic of both scholarly and public debate• Highly valuable to any classroom, public library, or academic library as well as to anyone interested in the interplay between religion and the law in the United States

Since the introduction of personal computers, software has emerged as a driving force in the global economy and a major industry in its own right. During this time, the U.S. government has reversed its prior policy against software patents and is now issuing thousands of such patents each year, provoking heated controversy among programmers, lawyers, scholars, and software companies. This book is the first to step outside of the highly-polarized debate and examine the current state of the law, its suitability to the realities of software development, and its implications for day-to-day software development.Written by a former lawyer and working software developer, Inventing Software provides a comprehensive overview of software patents, from the lofty perspectives of legal history and computing theory to the technical details and issues of actual patents. People interested in the legal aspect of software patents will find detailed technical analysis of actual patented software, the legal strategies behind the wording of the patents, and an analysis of the ease or difficulty of detecting infringements. Software developers will find ways to integrate patent planning into their standard software engineering practices, and a practical guide for studying and appraising their competitors' patents and safeguarding the value of their own. Intended primarily for programmers and software industry executives and managers, Inventing Software will also be useful, illuminating reading for attorneys and software company investors.