Like many Americans, the Eastern Orthodox converts in this study are participants in what scholars today refer to as the “spiritual marketplace” or quest culture of expanding religious diversity and i
"Rule of law"—the idea that the law is the nation's sovereign authority—has served as a cornerstone for constitutional theory and the jurisprudence of liberty. When law reigns over governors and the g
Having studied the organization of Russian imperial society for two decades, Wirtschafter (history, California State Polytechnic U., Pomona) realized she did not know how the empire's subjects underst
Making Moros offers a unique look at the colonization of Muslim subjects during the early years of American rule in the southern Philippines. Hawkins argues that the ethnological discovery, organiz
From the time the word kul’tura entered the Russian language in the early nineteenth century, Russian arts and letters have thrived on controversy. At any given time several versions of culture have
Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia traces the history of occult thought and practice from its origins in private salons to its popularity in turn-of-the-century mass culture. In lucid prose,
Lord Acton (1834–1902) is often called a historian of liberty. A great historian and political thinker, he had a rare talent to reach beneath the surface and reveal the hidden springs that move the
In Inscrutable Malice, Jonathan A. Cook expertly illuminates Melville’s abiding preoccupation with the problem of evil and the dominant role of the Bible in shaping his best-known novel. Drawing on r
From the classical dialogues of Plato to current political correctness, manipulating language to advance a particular set of values and ideas has been a time-honored practice. During times of radical
Many nineteenth-century women got their first taste of political activism in small-town societies advocating temperance and other moral causes. Alongside national organizations with charismatic male l
The question of order inspired two of the greatest political thinkers of the Renaissance—Niccolo Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini, whose major works on the nature of government are linked in an
At Gettysburg Lincoln resolved that "this nation, under God," would not perish, and in his Second Inaugural he called for "firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." How are we to under
In a treeless land far north of the Arctic Circle, the Iñupiat live immensely practical lives, yet they have a profound belief in the spirit world. For them, everything—whether living being or inanima
William Stimpson was at the forefront of the American natural history community in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Stimpson displayed an early affinity for the sea and natural history, and
The massive earthen mounds of ancient Cahokia in southwestern Illinois form the largest and most complex archaeological site in the United States. Here, at the center of a vibrant Native American cult
During that century, says Whittaker (history, Baruch College and City U. of New York), secular justification for power replaced religious sanction, rationalist arguments superseded acceptance based on
A category of persons best defined by what they were not, the raznochintsy—"people of various ranks" or "people of diverse origins"—inhabited the shifting social territory between nobles and serfs in
In the depths of a depression in 1894, a highly successful Gilded Age businessman named Jacob Coxey led a group of jobless men on a march from his hometown of Massillon, Ohio, to the steps of the nati
This original study tells the story of the Illinois Country, a collection of French villages that straddled the Mississippi River for nearly a century before it was divided by the treaties that ended
