This commentary on a part of book 5 of Lucan's 'historical epic' poem De Bello Civili aims to provide the reader with as thorough an analysis as possible of literary and historical points of interest within the text and so to facilitate a fuller understanding and appreciation of one of the most important episodes in the poem, Julius Caesar's failed attempt to cross the Adriatic in the midst of a great storm. It examines how the episode contributes to the long tradition of epic storm narratives dating back to Homer and also how it contributes to the wider themes of the poem as a whole, in particular to Lucan's portrayal of Caesar. A line-by-line commentary is combined with longer notes summarizing issues of particular importance. Such issues include: the influence of Roman love-poetry in the depiction of the relationship between Caesar and his men, Lucan's use of Virgil's Nisus and Euryalus episode, and the tradition of theoxeny narratives lying behind the scene at the home of the fisherman Amyclas which allows us to view Caesar as 'playing the part' of a traditional god or hero. Throughout, Lucan's engagement with the works of Homer, Virgil (particularly the Aeneid but also the Georgics), Ovid and Seneca, and the ways in which the lack of a traditional divine machinery in his poem is compensated for are considered.

An account of the struggles and oppression of the Pribilof Aleuts of Alaska written by a woman who became their passionate advocate. From June of 1941 through the following summer, Fredericka Martin lived with her husband, Dr. Samuel Berenberg, on remote St. Paul Island in Alaska. During that time, Martin delved into the complex history of the Unangan people, and Before the Storm draws from her personal accounts of that year and her research to present a fascinating portrait of a time and a people facing radical change. A government-ordered evacuation of all Aleuts from the island in the face of World War II, which Martin recounts in her journal, proved but the first step in a long struggle by native peoples to gain independence, and, as editor Raymond L. Hudson explains, Martin came to play a significant role in the effort. “Particularly because so few books about the Pribilofs have focused on the people of the islands, Before the Storm offers an especially welcome perspective to our understanding of the unusual history of the Aleuts there.” —Alaska Journal of Anthropology

The report presents information developed in the course of a multi-year investigation of the need for shore protection and storm damage reduction. The study area was 8.6 miles of the Pacific coast, known as Ocean Beach, in the City of San Francisco, CA. The study area extended from Cliff House to Fort Funston. The beach portion of the study area is in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Facilities threatened with damage included the Great Highway, parking lots of the GGNRA, a buried storm and sewer water transport box, a sewer pumping plant and ultimately houses and businesses. The report records the Ocean Engineering, Economic, and Geotechnical studies used to formulate and analyze a variety of alternative measures, including structural seawalls and revetments, as well as beach and dune nourishment. The final analysis indicated that most of the study area, while not absolutely safe, had a low probability of erosion. In the one area with a possible federal interest, the sponsor was unable to agree to cost share at the time of the report. Therefore the study was terminated. The sponsor will pursue other measures not requiring federal cost sharing.

The first definitive work on the European Storm-petrel and its relatives, by one of the world's leading experts on the species. Imagine a bird as small as a sparrow, which lives most of its life on the open ocean yet can survive for decades. It walks on water, and migrates half way around the world, returning to remote islands to breed underground, often in the same rock crevice each year. At night it lays an enormous egg, feeding its chick until the nestling weighs more than both parents put together. It seems to have little fear of humans, but was itself feared by ancient seafarers. This might sound like the stuff of legend but is actually the description of a real creature, the storm-petrel: walker on water, global wanderer, climate sentinel and open-ocean survivor. In this beautifully written monograph, Rob Thomas explores the remarkable life of the European Storm-petrel, comparing and contrasting its behaviour and ecology across its range, and with the other storm-petrels of the world. We learn about their evolution, taxonomy, migration and adaptations to a life in the harsh open ocean, while also discovering what these enigmatic seabirds are revealing about what humans are doing to our planet. Illustrated with 150 photographs, and including the author's personal anecdotes and observations, Storm-petrels highlights some of the most exciting recent research findings and sets a trajectory for future discoveries.