Reprint of the original, first published in 1858.

From the war-torn skies over Britain during the 2nd World War, the story transports us to the blood drenched desert sands of Victorian England's campaign in the torrid Sudan and the monasteries of the Sketian desert, from which a military chaplain joins his brother in England, an academic who is struggling to preserve his marriage. The two dissimilar characters, whose paths have crossed again, envision a brighter future but they fail to see the spectre of the ghostly hand on the wall that conjures up the end of the world order as they know it.....

The Dred Scott case is the most notorious example of slaves suing for freedom. Most examinations of the case focus on its notorious verdict, and the repercussions that the decision set off-especially the worsening of the sectional crisis that would eventually lead to the Civil War-were extreme. In conventional assessment, a slave losing a lawsuit against his master seems unremarkable. But in fact, that case was just one of many freedom suits brought by slaves in the antebellum period; an example of slaves working within the confines of the U.S. legal system (and defying their masters in the process) in an attempt to win the ultimate prize: their freedom. And until Dred Scott, the St. Louis courts adhered to the rule of law to serve justice by recognizing the legal rights of the least well-off. For over a decade, legal scholar Lea VanderVelde has been building and examining a collection of more than 300 newly discovered freedom suits in St. Louis. In Redemption Songs, VanderVelde describes twelve of these never-before analyzed cases in close detail. Through these remarkable accounts, she takes readers beyond the narrative of the Dred Scott case to weave a diverse tapestry of freedom suits and slave lives on the frontier. By grounding this research in St. Louis, a city defined by the Antebellum frontier, VanderVelde reveals the unique circumstances surrounding the institution of slavery in westward expansion. Her investigation shows the enormous degree of variation among the individual litigants in the lives that lead to their decision to file suit for freedom. Although Dred Scott's loss is the most widely remembered, over 100 of the 300 St. Louis cases that went to court resulted in the plaintiff's emancipation. Beyond the successful outcomes, the very existence of these freedom suits helped to reshape the parameters of American slavery in the nation's expansion. Thanks to VanderVelde's thorough and original research, we can hear for the first time the vivid stories of a seemingly powerless group who chose to use a legal system that was so often arrayed against them in their fight for freedom from slavery.

Fieldwork extending over a thirty-year period provided materials for this book. Paths and Rivers offers an unusually deep and broad picture of the Sa’dan Toraja as a society in dynamic transition over the course of the past century. The Toraja inhabit the mountainous highlands of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and are well known for their dramatic architecture, their unusual cliff burials, and their flamboyant ceremonial life, which places extraordinary economic demands on individuals and families. The analysis is informed, firstly, by a comparative perspective which sets Toraja social structure in the context of the Austronesian world. Secondly, the author delves deeply into Toraja social memory to show how people think about the past. She examines the usefulness of history and myth in the present as a source of identity, a template for action, or a resource by means of which to claim precedence. The book gives a clear picture of the structure and ethos of the indigenous Toraja religion, the Aluk To Dolo or "Way of the Ancestors", with its complex cycle of rituals. The book concludes with an analysis of the ceremonial economy, which draws upon both domestic subsistence production and the global market economy. Paths and Rivers draws together a fascinating picture of one society’s journey into modernity.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1872.

The Blue Fairy Book is the first volume in the Langs' Fairy Books series, and so it contains some of the best known tales, taken from a variety of sources. The Blue Book assembles a wide range of tales, with seven from the Brothers Grimm, five from Madame d'Aulnoy, three from the Arabian Nights, and four Norwegian fairytales, among others. Table of Contents: The Bronze Ring Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess East of the Sun and West of the Moon The Yellow Dwarf Little Red Riding Hood The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was Rumpelstiltzkin Beauty and the Beast The Master-Maid Why the Sea is Salt The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots Felicia and the Pot of Pinks The White Cat The Water-Lily - The Gold-Spinners The Terrible Head The Story of Pretty Goldilocks The History of Whittington The Wonderful Sheep Little Thumb The Forty Thieves Hansel and Grettel Snow-White and Rose-Red The Goose-Girl Toads and Diamonds Prince Darling Blue Beard Trusty John The Brave Little Tailor A Voyage to Lilliput The Princess on the Glass Hill The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou The History of Jack the Giant-Killer The Black Bull of Norroway The Red Etin