“It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s an Elementary-Aged Girl!”

Funny Girls ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Michelle Ann Abate

The Introduction provides necessary historical background information. It gives an overview of the book's overall aims and argument, and it also summarizes the project's methodology and organizational plan.When critics, scholars, and fans think about major developments in American comics from the first half of the twentieth century, they commonly think of events like the advent of the Sunday newspaper supplement, the rise of the comic book, and the backlash against the industry by individuals like Fredric Wertham. The Introduction to this project makes a case for adding another phenomenon to this history: the popularity of young female protagonists.As it explains, examining figures like Little Lulu, Nancy, and Little Orphan Annie-both individually and as part of a larger tradition-yields compelling new insights about the industry during the first half of the twentieth century. Remembering and recouping the cadre of Funny Girls who played such a significant role in the popular appeal and commercial success of American comics during the first half of the twentieth century challenges longstanding perceptions about the gender dynamics operating during this era.

Modern China ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 009770042096992
Author(s):  
Huasha Zhang

This article analyzes the transformation of Lhasa’s Chinese community from the embodiment of an expansionist power in the early eighteenth century to the orphan of a fallen regime after the Qing Empire’s demise in 1911. Throughout the imperial era, this remote Chinese enclave represented Qing authority in Tibet and remained under the metropole’s strong political and social influence. Its members intermarried with the locals and adopted many Tibetan cultural traits. During the years surrounding the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, this community played a significant role in a series of interconnected political and ethnic confrontations that gave birth to the two antagonistic national bodies of Tibet and China. The community’s history and experiences challenge not only the academic assessment that Tibet’s Chinese population had fully assimilated into Tibetan society by the twentieth century but also the widespread image of pre-1951 Lhasa as a harmonious town of peaceful ethnic coexistence.


1987 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.V.M. Horton

This paper comprises an enquiry into the unrest in the Belait and Tutong districts of Brunei at the turn of the twentieth century. After outlining the course of the disturbances, I shall examine their causes, explain why the recrudescence of violence (after a period of calm) early in 1901 led to a departure in British policy towards the Sultanate, and finally, show how the factors which had given rise to the original disaffection were removed, and lasting peace restored, under a reformed administration introduced at the beginning of 1906. First, however, some background information is necessary.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Wallace

Kyi, Tanya L. Seeing Red: The True Story of Blood. Illus. Steve Rolston. Toronto: Annick Press, 2012. Print. Seeing Red is an informative, humourous, gory, and decidedly irreverent treatment of a subject close to all of our hearts. Canadian author Tanya Lloyd Kyi is best known for the 50 Questions series for young readers, featuring topics as diverse as fire, poison and underwear. The very clever illustrations, by award-winning comic and graphic novel artist Steve Rolston, are presented in shades of black, grey, and (naturally) blood red. The main narrative provides a fascinating overview of the red stuff, human and otherwise, and the central role it has played in history, culture, and science. Alongside the text in each chapter, the reader is treated to a comic book featuring (in a nod to Bram Stoker) a boy named Harker who keeps a notebook of his blood-filled adventures as he finds himself at the centre of the topic under discussion. And throughout, the author provides a wealth of related trivia and factoids using insets on subtle background graphics of red blood cells and band aids. Individual chapters focus on ritual and religion, coming of age, food and drink, family ties and genetics, medicine and forensics, and the human fascination with violence. And while not following a strict chronology, the author clearly demonstrates how human understanding of this vital fluid has developed throughout history. The chapter Rites of Passage should be of particular interest to pre-teens, with its graphic descriptions of how various cultures have developed painful and bloody initiation rituals to mark a boy’s transition to adulthood, and of the wide range of celebrations and taboos surrounding a girl’s first menstrual period. The ever-popular vampire is featured no more prominently than any other topic in the text, with only a couple of sections in the chapter Sips and Suppers that discusses the utility of blood in all manner of drinking and dining. But the introduction of a cute young female vampire to Harker’s story midway through the book will no doubt appease any disappointed Twilight fans. Pop culture references abound, and the author’s black humour skewers major religions and historical figures alike. A discussion of hemophilia features an illustration of Queen Victoria handing a jumbo pack of bandages to her daughter with the words “Don’t forget your dowry dear.” There’s no lack of gory detail in this book, from Aztec priests ripping beating hearts from the chests of their captives, to classifications of blood spatter velocities and how they correspond to different levels of violent injury. This book would be a great addition to any public or school library. Each chapter ends with a few questions from Harker’s notebook that may provide some interesting starting points for classroom discussion: “Is it okay to sacrifice animals for religious reasons? How is that different than killing for meat, or hunting for sport?” The reader is provided with a list of titles for further reading, and a selected bibliography. And with its fairly in-depth indexing, Seeing Red provides a handy reference to a lot of bloody information. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Elizabeth WallaceElizabeth Wallace is the Collections Manager in the Science and Technology Library of the University of Alberta.  She holds an undergraduate degree in Geography and Environmental Studies, and an MLIS, both from McGill University.  She has been a Science and Engineering librarian for her entire professional career, working in both public and academic libraries in the U.S. and Canada.


2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Retief Muller

The role of the Dutch Reformed Church’s mission policies in the development of apartheid ideology has in recent times come under increased scrutiny. In terms of the formulation of missionary theory within the DRC, the controversial figure of Johannes du Plessis played a significant role in the early twentieth century. In addition to his work as a mission theorist, Du Plessis was a biblical scholar at Stellenbosch University who was found guilty of heresy by his church body, despite having much support from the rank and file membership. This article asks questions regarding the ways in which his memory and legacy are often evaluated from the twin, yet opposing perspectives of sacralisation and vilification. It also considers the wider intellectual influences on Du Plessis such as the missiology of the German theologian, Gustav Warneck. Du Plessis’s missionary theory helped to lay the groundwork for the later development of apartheid ideology, but perhaps in spite of himself, he also introduced a subverting discourse into Dutch Reformed theology. Some of the incidental consequences of this discourse, particularly in relation to the emerging theme of indigenous knowledge, are furthermore assessed here.


Author(s):  
Richard Sharpe ◽  
Alan Deyermond

This chapter examines the study of Latin language and literature in Great Britain during the twentieth century. It explains that Latin is so pervasive in the literature, philosophy, science, law and historiography of medieval western Europe that most aspects of scholarship on Latin are covered in most medieval studies. It provides background information on Latin language of the earlier middle ages and discusses Latin literature.


Author(s):  
John M. Chenoweth

This introductory chapter sketches the questions and goals of the overall project and the needed background information about Quakerism. It introduces the Tortola Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (“Quakers”) which formed in the British Virgin Islands about 1740 and addresses how archaeology can approach the study of religion and religious communities. This chapter also serves as an introduction to Quakerism itself, including its ideology based on individual, un-mediated communion with God, and a brief history of the group from its foundation in the political and economic turmoil of mid-seventeenth-century England, to the “Quietism” of wealthy “Quaker Grandees” in Philadelphia, to a nineteenth and twentieth century history of schism and reunion around pacifism. The Quaker structure of Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly meetings is introduced, and connected to both community oversight and support structures. Finally, this chapter introduces three main Quaker ideals—simplicity, equality, and peace—which will be interrogated throughout the work as they change in their interactions with Caribbean slavery and geography.


Author(s):  
K. Mitchell Snow

The extended turmoil associated with the decade-long armed portion of the Mexican Revolution provoked widespread concern about how the country would remake itself once the violence ended. Establishing a national esthetic as a means of unification played a significant role in this discussion, which began before hostilities ended. Some of the early manifestations of what might be regarded as Mexican nationalism arose from an appreciation of the land’s indigenous heritage while it was still under Spanish control. Although the willingness to fully embrace the indigenous components of its culture was largely a twentieth century phenomenon, by the late nineteenth century Mexican intellectuals did understand the nation to be essentially mestizo, or mixed race. It was from these premises that the discussion departed.


Author(s):  
Sébastien Billioud

The introduction provides some background information about the Yiguandao, focusing on its historical roots, its ideology (spiritual lineages/daotong, syncretism, cosmology, millenarian eschatology), and its history across the twentieth century. The aim is to get a better understanding of what the Yiguandao has now become, that is to say, a transnational religious organization with a global footprint that currently attempts to reestablish itself in Mainland China where its expansion was strong before 1949. Mainland China, precisely, is the spiritual wilderness that the group ambitions to reclaim by promoting its Way of Heaven (Tiandao). The introduction also addresses the issue of fieldwork and more specifically participant observation and its difficulties in the context of new religions.


2020 ◽  
pp. 240-258
Author(s):  
Mary E. Sommar

This is the story of how the church sought to establish norms for slave ownership on the part of ecclesiastical institutions and personnel and for others’ behavior toward such slaves. Chronicles, letters, and other documents from each of the various historical periods, along with an analysis of the various policies and statutes, provide insight into the situations of these unfree ecclesiastical dependents. Although this book is a serious scholarly monograph about the history of church law, it has been written in such a way that no specialist knowledge is required of the reader, whether a scholar in another field or a general reader interested in church history or the history of slavery. Historical background is provided, and there is a short Latin lexicon. This chapter summarizes the conclusions drawn in earlier chapters and provides a brief overview of the question of ecclesiastical servitude up to the twentieth century.


1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Howard

Three hundred years after his death in 1687 Jean-Baptiste Lully's reputation is entering a new phase. Only a minority of opera-goers today have had the opportunity of seeing one of Lully's operas performed in the theatre. French music, always a degree less accessible to a non-French public than the music of its Italian and Austro-German neighbours, remains the last corner of the seventeenth-century repertory to make a popular appeal to twentieth-century audiences. There are indications, however, in the appearance of a new collected edition, in the small output of new recordings, and in the greater volume of scholarly investigation associated with the tercentenary, that the distinctive sound of Lully's music will soon become at least as familiar as that of his contemporaries Purcell and Cavalli. And familiarity will surely engender popularity: the music needs no special pleading.


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