Within its 30 square miles that stretch from the Narragansett Bay of the Atlantic Ocean to the pastoral hills of central Rhode Island, Cranston has always offered a wide range of contrasts. For the founders of the settlement in 1638, religious idealism competed with a sometimes ruthless desire for more land. Cranston was nicknamed the "City of Farms," although in the mid-1800s it was known as the home of one of the greatest industrial empires in the nation. Cranston Revisited reveals how the residents worked, worshipped, socialized, traveled, learned, and governed themselves throughout their 375-year history. Cranston has much to be proud of, including the local farm boy who was the hero of a Herman Melville book, America's first May Breakfast, the first site of a popular racing sport, and the textile company that at one time led the world in printing calico. Cranston Revisited showcases the rich heritage of this community through the historic photograph collection of the Cranston Historical Society as well as photographic contributions from the city's citizens.

"If this work is of men it will come to nothing: but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it " -Rabbi Gamaliel, Acts 5:38?39 Was Theosophical Society founder Helena P. Blavatsky a prophetess or charlatan? Since the 1870's detractors have lambasted both her character and ideas. Yet, H.P.B.'s reputation has continued to grow. Theosophy's non-dogmatic and ecumenical approach to spirituality offers 21st Century seekers a viable alternative to religious fundamentalism. Today thousands of people on every continent belong to the Theosophical Society. All of Madame's books and articles remain in print. The freshness and wit of her letters make them seem as if they were written yesterday. Though controversial, she's withstood time's test. Madame Blavatsky Revisited tells H.P.B.'s remarkable story in an entertaining manner.

California was perhaps the most important locus for the development of the Progressive reform movement in the decades of the twentieth century. These twelve original essays represent the best of the new scholarship on California Progressivism. Ranging across a spectrum that embraces ethnicity, gender, class, and varying ideological stances, the authors demonstrate that reform in California was a far broader, more complicated phenomenon than we have previously understood. Since the 1950s, scholars have used California Progressivism as a model case study for explaining early twentieth-century social and political reform nationwide. But such a model—which ignored issues of class, race, and gender—simplified a political movement that was, in fact, quite complex. In revising the monolithic interpretation of reform and reformers, this volume provides a better understanding of the sweeping reform impulses that had such a profound effect on American political and social institutions during this century. Equally important, the issues examined here offer significant insights into problems that the entire country must tackle as we approach the new century.

Do miracles still happen today? This book demonstrates that miraculous works of God, which have been part of the experience of the church around the world since Christianity began, continue into the present. Leading New Testament scholar Craig Keener addresses common questions about miracles and provides compelling reasons to believe in them today, including many accounts that offer evidence of verifiable miracles. This book gives an accessible and concise overview of one of Keener's most significant research topics. His earlier two-volume work on miracles stands as the definitive word on the topic, but its size and scope are daunting to many readers. This new book summarizes Keener's basic argument but contains substantial new material, including new accounts of the miraculous. It is suitable as a textbook but also accessible to church leaders and laypeople.

"John Locke was the most renowned philosopher, aesthetician, ethicist, and political scientist of the later seventeenth century. Who was this eccentric figure who, at various times in his life, held patronage political appointments, worked as a freelance medical doctor, bided time in exile, floated through non-conforming counter-cultures, restored himself at health spas, and played with scientific apparatus?" "It is this elusive gentleman that Kevin Cope seeks out in John Locke Revisited. After a careful study of the many different aspects of Locke's work and personality, Cope offers an entirely new, yet more holistic view, than may be found in previous studies. By taking into account the many different aspects of Locke's character and by carefully examining his lasting contributions to such divergent fields as politics and religion, Cope's book is the first such volume to offer an integrated portrait of Locke." "In John Locke Revisited, Kevin Cope offers us a comprehensive view of a true Renaissance man who exerted a lasting degree of influence throughout the English Enlightenment and into the modern day world."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Two sisters explore, in essay and fiction, the common experiences and frustrations of growing up in a small town, and the mystical worlds that provide an escape from the ordinary. Stroll through our haunted forests; learn exactly what seems so odd about a new neighbor; strive against repression and receive blessings; discover sanctuary in the most unlikely places; allow a bluesman to heal you with his music and a touch of his magical hands; find suggestions for a cure (we hope) for current societal ills. Above all, enjoy, and may every one of the "what ifs?" inspired by these pages be answered

Democracy Revisited is a critical as well as uncritical approach to the study and review of democracy today. The objective of the first chapter is to deal with some theoretical reasons of the decline of democracy such as lack of holistic approach, omission of civil society and varied forms of democracy. Out of many theoretical defects the book especially highlights the problem of precision regarding the meaning and nature of democracy and omission of civil society in democracy. Omission of civil society in democratic discourses has been a direct cause of the decline of democracy. That the people are ignored in practical democracy is due to the fact that civil society is absolutely omitted from the democratic narratives. The book also highlights some of major practical problems that are downgrading the importance, implication and relevance of democracy today in reality. Such practical problems are corruption, rule of the elites in lieu of rule of the people, inequality of race, gender and religion and lack of leadership. Under this perspective, it is necessary to have an open look towards the positive points of democracy. Since, there is no much better alternative than democracy we must have to highlight its strong points such as scope of debate, discussion, participation and formation of opinion by which democracy can be a people-friendly political system as well as an ideology and a cultural practice. Thus, this book is not only a criticism of democracy, but also a call for revisiting its strength by which democracy can still claim to be a suitable alternative of all types of statecraft, political systems and social and cultural pattern of life.