This solo mini-campaign was inspired by FINLAND AT WAR: THE WINTER WAR 1939-40 by Vesa Nenye, and saw two imagi-nations, Opeland (which stood in for Finland) and the all-powerful Soviet People's United Republics or SPUR (which stood in for the Soviet Union) fighting each other over the position of the border between the two countries and possession of the city of Viputa. An early version of the author's THE PORTABLE WARGAME rules was used to fight the tabletop battles, and the figures, models, and terrain all came from his extensive collections.

In song, verse, narrative, and dramatic form, war literature has existed for nearly all of recorded history. Accounts of war continue to occupy American bestseller lists and the stacks of American libraries. This innovative work establishes the American novel of war as its own sub-genre within American war literature, creating standards by which such works can be classified and critically and popularly analyzed. Each chapter identifies a defining characteristic, analyzes existing criticism, and explores the characteristic in American war novels of record. Topics include violence, war rhetoric, the death of noncombatants, and terrain as an enemy.

This solo mini-campaign was inspired involvement of Great Britain in Egypt and the Sudan during the latter part of the nineteenth century. It involves the imagi-nations of Britannia (Great Britain), Fezia (Ottoman Turkey), and Zubia (Egypt), and sees Britannia interfering in the affairs of Zubia, a semi-independent province of the Fezian Empire. An early precursor to the author's THE PORTABLE WARGAME rules was used to fight the tabletop battles, and the figures, models, and terrain all came from his extensive collections.

Recent studies have examined martyrdom as a means of constructing Christian identity, but until now none has focused on Stephen, the first Christian martyr. For the author of Luke-Acts, the stoning of Stephen-- even more than the death of Jesus-- underscores the perfidy of non-believing Jews, the extravagant mercy of Christians, and the inevitable rift that will develop between these two social groups. Stephen's dying prayer that his persecutors be forgiven-the prayer for which he is hailed in Christian tradition as the "perfect martyr" plays a crucial role in drawing an unprecedented distinction between Jewish and early Christian identities. Shelly Matthews deftly situates Stephen's story within the emerging discourse of early Christian martyrdom. Though Stephen is widely acknowledged to be an actual historical figure, Matthews points to his name, his manner of death, and to other signs that his martyrdom was ideally suited to the rhetorical purposes of Acts and its author, Luke: to uphold Roman views of security and respectability, to show non-believing Jews to disadvantage, and to convey that Christianity was an exceptionally merciful religion. By drawing parallels between Acts and stories of the martyrdom of James, the brother of Jesus, Matthews challenges the coherent canonical narrative of Acts and questions common assumptions about the historicity of Stephen's martyrdom. She also offers a radical new reading of Stephen's last prayer, showing the complex and sometimes violent effects of its modern interpretations. Perfect Martyr illuminates the Stephen story as never before, offering a deeply nuanced picture of violence, solidarity, and resistance among Jews and early Christians, a key to understanding the early development of a non-Jewish Christian identity, and an innovative reframing of one of the most significant stories in the Bible.