San Antonio College Library

"Until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia's identity seemed inextricably linked with that of the former state. This book explores the key moments and themes in the history of Slovakia from the Duchy of Nitra's ninth-century origins to the establishment of independent Slovakia at midnight 1992-1993. Leading scholars chart the gradual ethnic awakening of the Slovaks during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and examine how Slovak national...

"In talking about bulls and bullfighting, observes Douglass, one ends up talking not only about differences in region, class, and politics in Spain but also about that country's ongoing struggle between modernity and tradition. She relates how Spaniards and outsiders see bullfighting as representative of a traditional, irrational Spain contrasted with a more civilized Europe, and she shows how Spaniards' ambivalence about bullfighting is actually...

This lively reader traces the search for American tradition and national identity through folklore and folklife from the 19th century to the present. Through an engaging set of essays, Folk Nation shows how American thinkers and leaders have used folklore to express the meaning of their country. Simon Bronner has carefully selected statements by public intellectuals and popular writers as well as by scholars, all chosen for their readability and significance...

"Tracing Russia's course from its beginnings to the present day, Poe shows that Russia was the only non-Western power to defend itself against Western imperialism for centuries. It did so by building a powerful state that molded society to its military needs. Thus arose the only non-Western path to modern society - a unique path neither "European" nor "Asian" but, most aptly, "Russian."" "From the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Russia prevailed...

"The "American Way," Allan Carlson's episodic history of the last century, shows how our nation's identity has been shaped by carefully constructed images of the American family and the American home. From the surprisingly radical measures put forth by Theodore Roosevelt to encourage stable, large families, to the unifying role of the image of the home in assimilating immigrants, to the "maternalist" activists who attempted to transform the New Deal...

"On Becoming Cuban is a sweeping cultural history of the sustained encounter between the peoples of Cuba and the United States and of the ways that this encounter helped shape Cubans' identity, nationality, and sense of modernity from the early 1850s, when Cuba was still a Spanish colony, until the revolution of 1959"--Jacket.

"The pursuit of E pluribus unum - "from many, one"--The motto on which the United States was founded, has continually posed one of the greatest challenges our presidents have faced throughout history. How does the presidency foster a spirit of unity among all Americans despite so many divergent interests and backgrounds? In this singular study, accomplished storyteller and professor of English Wayne Fields examines this rhetorical tug-of-war through...

"Alter Ego presents twenty perspectives on Europe and its other(s), from both inside and outside the EU, from the acceding states and from the new neighbour countries. Writers, poets, scientists, artists, and politicians whose life and work are indistinguishable from Europe and yet often offer the vantage point of an outsider. Twenty individuals who by virtue of their talent, craft or profession are seasoned mediators between various milieus, backgrounds,...