Twelve-year-old Allister McRuer can’t wait to attend the brand new, one-room schoolhouse that he, his father, and brothers helped to build on a corner of his family’s pioneer homestead in southwestern Manitoba. There was no school within walking distance when Allister and his family first arrived in May of 1892. More than a year has passed, and Allister worries that he has forgotten everything he learned at his school in eastern Canada. Will he and his twin brother, Jim, ever be able to catch up? Allister’s excitement quickly turns to frustration. His new teacher doesn’t seem to know how to handle sixteen children in Grades 1 through 8. What chaos! And his father continually pulls Allister and Jim out of school to help with the harvest or to build on their older brothers’ homestead claims. How are he and Jim going to pass any grade?

Eleven-year-old Allister McRuer’s fears materialize when he and his family arrive at their Manitoba pioneer homestead in 1892. What could make it worse? Being called Allis.During the trip from Lachute, Quebec to Cherry Creek, Manitoba, Allister shares a train boxcar with three of his brothers and all of their family’s livestock. The closer he gets to the homestead his father and oldest brother, John, started three years ago, the worse Allister’s misery gets as older brother, Will, torments Allister by calling him “Allis,” a name he hates because it sounds like “Alice.”Allister’s first hour in Cherry Creek does little to ease his concerns. While their brothers unload the McRuers’ two boxcars, Allister and his twin brother, Jim, explore the town. Allister is discouraged at the small size of the local school, wondering how he will ever finish grade eight. As they continue walking, Allister and Jim witness a terrible accident. Although they’re able to help a horse and an injured driver, Allister’s anxiety over his family’s move to the prairies takes a new turn when he’s told that the only doctor

The spate of books written recently on Christian higher education highlights a common theme -- how numerous colleges founded by church bodies have gradually lost their religious moorings, often culminating in what historian George Marsden calls "established nonbelief." Can Hope Endure? examines the history of Hope College in Holland, Michigan, as it has struggled to find a faithful middle way between secularization and withdrawal from mainstream academic and American culture. Authors James Kennedy and Caroline Simon track Hope College's responses to various social and intellectual challenges through careful analysis of school records, newspaper stories, extant histories, and interviews with faculty members and past presidents. Hope's history reveals that the school is exceptional, having followed the predictable trajectory, yet changing course in some ways. Given this unusual history, the story of why and how Hope College moved toward reestablishing the role of religion in its institutional life yields important lessons for other schools facing the same challenges. Neither an attack on Hope College nor the kind of celebratory institutional history that so many schools have authorized, this book is instead a thoughtful, instructive study written by two professors who have witnessed firsthand many of Hope's struggles to retain its identity and purpose. The book's narrative is enriched by the "binocular vision" provided by a professional historian and a professional philosopher, and collaboration has afforded Kennedy and Simon the critical distance necessary to ask hard questions about Hope and, by extension, other institutions like it. Can Hope Endure? will be of real interest not only to readers associated with Hope College but also to those following or participating in the ongoing conversation about Christianity and higher education.

Reviews costs and benefits of nuclear programs involving Defense Dept and nuclear industries.

Investigates AEC's justification of delayed opening and increased construction costs of La Crosse boiling water reactor (LACBWR) and similar difficulties experienced in construction of other nuclear power plants. Supplemental material (p. 55-536) includes evidence submitted by AEC concerning administrative procedures followed during development of safety and engineering standards.