Author: Price, T. Douglas File Type: pdf Scandinavia, a land mass comprising the modern countries of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, was the last part of Europe to be inhabited by humans. Not until the end of the last Ice Age when the melting of huge ice sheets left behind a fresh, barren land surface, about 13,000 BC, did the first humans arrive and settle in the region. The archaeological record of these prehistoric cultures, much of it remarkably preserved in Scandinavias bogs, lakes, and fjords, has given us a detailed portrait of the evolution of human society at the edge of the inhabitable world. In this book, distinguished archaeologist T. Douglas Price provides a history of Scandinavia from the arrival of the first humans to the end of the Viking period, ca. AD 1050. The first book of its kind in English in many years, Ancient Scandinavia features overviews of each prehistoric epoch followed by illustrative examples from the regions rich archaeology. An engrossing and comprehensive picture of change across the millennia emerges, showing how human society evolved from small bands of hunter-gatherers to large farming communities to the complex warrior cultures of the Bronze and Iron Ages, cultures which culminated in the spectacular rise of the Vikings at the end of the prehistoric period. The material evidence of these past societies--arrowheads from reindeer hunts, megalithic tombs, rock art, beautifully wrought weaponry, Viking warships--give vivid testimony to the ancient peoples of Scandinavia and to their extensive contacts with the remote cultures of the Arctic Circle, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean**

Author: Paulo Drinot File Type: pdf Although Latin America weathered the Great Depression better than the United States and Europe, the global economic collapse of the 1930s had a deep and lasting impact on the region. The contributors to this book examine the consequences of the Depression in terms of the role of the state, party-political competition, and the formation of working-class and other social and political movements. Going beyond economic history, they chart the repercussions and policy responses in different countries while noting common cross-regional trends--in particular, a mounting critique of economic orthodoxy and greater state intervention in the economic, social, and cultural spheres, both trends crucial to the regions subsequent development. The book also examines how regional transformations interacted with and differed from global processes. Taken together, these essays deepen our understanding of the Great Depression as a formative experience in Latin America and provide a timely comparative perspective on the recent global economic crisis. Contributors. Marcelo Bucheli, Carlos Contreras, Paulo Drinot, Jeffrey L. Gould, Roy Hora, Alan Knight, Gillian McGillivray, Luis Felipe Saenz, Angela Vergara, Joel Wolfe, Doug Yarrington **

Author: Marguerite Yourcenar File Type: pdf p DejaVu Sans, serif 14pxPublished to great acclaim in France in 1993, this collection is not only a delight for Marguerite Yourcenar fans but a welcome port of entry for any reader not yet familiar with the authors lengthier, more demanding works. The sole published work of fiction by Yourcenar yet to be translated into English, this collection includes three stories written between 1927 and 1930 when the author was in her mid-twenties. These stories cover a range of themes, from an allegory on greed and a scene from the war of the sexes, to a witchhunt that obsessively creates its own quarry. p DejaVu Sans, serif 14pxFor the devoted readers of Yourcenar, this collection allows a rare glimpse at the beginnings of a writers craft. In these accomplished but forgotten pieces, edited and introduced by her biographer, Josyane Savigneau, the reader will find the blend of fable and fairy tale of Oriental Tales, the psychological chronicle of Dear Departed, the ironic realism of A Coin in Nine Hands. Read as an introduction to Yourcenars work, the stories take us into the writers workshop, as it were, to the early days of creation. In either case, A Blue Tale and Other Stories carries the unmistakable voice of a formidable and vastly talented writer. p DejaVu Sans, serif 14pxMarguerite Yourcenar (her pseudonym was an anagram of her family name, Crayencour) was born in Brussels in 1903 and died in Maine in 1987. One of the most respected writers in the French language, she is best known as the author of the best-selling Memoirs of Hadrian and The Abyss. She was awarded many literary honors, most notably election to the Academie Francaise in 1980, the first woman to be so honored. p DejaVu Sans, serif 14px**h3 DejaVu Sans, serif 14pxFrom Publishers Weekly p DejaVu Sans, serif 14pxWritten between 1927 and 1930, when Yourcenar (1903-1987) was in her mid-20s, these three exquisite stories prefigure the Belgian-born French novelists mature dramatic powers. In the title piece, Yourcenar describes the external world in myriad shades of blue. Unfolding like a folktale, this tonal experiment concerns a band of seafaring European merchants (Dutch, Irish, Greek, Castilian) who seek a cave full of sapphires, aided by a deaf-mute female slave with blue-black hair. She is kidnapped by the greedy Greek merchant (her tears turn to aquamarines), then stripped and lashed to the mast by the ships crew, but this act of violation signals the mariners undoing. Male arrogance and misogyny also underlie The First Evening, which was written by Yourcenars father, Michel de Crayencour, then revised and completed by her in a curious collaboration. Honeymooning with his new wife, a man resents receiving the news that his ex-mistress has thrown herself under a bus. In The Evil Spell, set in a Mediterranean village, an Italian peasant woman dying of tuberculosis, seemingly inflicted by a jealous rivals magic curse, is aided by a male healers spell-breaking rituals. In sensual yet precise prose, Yourcenar probes the workings of greed, faith, credulity and empathy in human relationships. 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. h3 DejaVu Sans, serif 14pxFrom Library Journal p DejaVu Sans, serif 14pxDiscovered among Yourcenars papers after her death in 1987, the three stories in this slim volume were written from 1927 and 1930, when the author was in her mid-twenties, and are a startling achievement. They reveal her preoccupation with storytelling methods she later developed in her novels?reworking of oral traditions and an incandescent point of view?as well as a fascination with the fable and the occult. Only A Blue Tale, told entirely in timbres of blue, has not been published. An Evil Spell concerns a young Italian peasant who confesses to sorcery out of fear yet finds a new power in the terror she now inspires. The First Evening is the most compelling of the three tales On his wedding night, a bridegroom reflects on his new possession then receives notice that his ex-mistress has been struck by a bus. The story, created by Yourcenars father as a young man and reworked by the daughter, reveals the cold, sure eye of a writer beyond her years. A good introduction to Yourcenars work for literature collections.?Amy Boaz, Library Journal 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.font face=DejaVu Sans, serifspan 14pxhttpwww.archive.orgdetailsbluetaleothersto00yourspanfont

Author: Robertus Holcot File Type: pdf