In this important study, poet Melba Joyce Boyd analyzes Harper not simply as a feminist and an activist, but as a writer.

Struggle for Equal Adulthood: Gender, Race, Age, and the Fight for Citizenship in Antebellum America

Brilliantly and concisely summarises the essence of core teachings such as the Jataka Tales, Samyutta-nikaya, Anguttara-nikaya, Diamond Sutra, White Lotus Sutra, Vimalakirt-nirdesa, Lankavatara Sutra, Sutra of Golden Light, Flower-Ornament Sutra, Perfection of Wisdom teachings, the Abhidharma and more. Also addresses the question of what actual constitutes Buddhism's authentic canonical literature. This new edition includes a fresh preface by the author. Realizing that he was a Buddhist at age 16, Sangharakshita eventually spent 20 years in India. Returning to England, he established Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (1967); Western Buddhist Order (1968). Author of nearly 50 books.

Based entirely on archival research, Poets in the Public Sphere traces the emergence of the "New Woman" by examining poetry published by American women in newspapers and magazines between 1800 and 1900. Using sources like the Kentucky Reporter, the Cherokee Phoenix, the Cincinnati Israelite, and the Atlantic Monthly, Bennett is able to track how U.S. women from every race, class, caste, region, and religion exploited the freedom offered by the nation's periodical press, especially the poetry columns, to engage in heated debate with each other and with men over matters of mutual concern. Far from restricting their poems to the domestic and personal, these women addressed a significant array of political issues--abolition, Indian removals, economic and racial injustice, the Civil War, and, not least, their own changing status as civil subjects. Overflowing with a wealth of heretofore untapped information, their poems demonstrate conclusively that "ordinary" nineteenth-century women were far more influenced by the women's rights movement than historians have allowed. In showing how these women turned the sentimental and ideologically saturated conventions of the period's verse to their own ends, Bennett argues passionately and persuasively for poetry's power as cultural and political discourse. As much women's history as literary history, this book invites readers to rethink not only the role that nineteenth-century women played in their own emancipation but the role that poetry plays in cultural life.

During Reconstruction, former abolitionists in the North had a golden opportunity to pursue true racial justice and permanent reform in America. But why, after the sacrifice made by thousands of Civil War patriots to arrive at this juncture, did the moment slip away, leaving many whites throughout the North and South more racist than before? Edward J. Blum takes a fresh look at this question in Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898, where he focuses on the vital role that religion played in reunifying northern and southern whites into a racially segregated society. He tells the fascinating story of how northern Protestantism, once the catalyst for racial egalitarianism, promoted the image of a "white republic" that conflated whiteness, godliness, and nationalism. A blend of history and social science, Reforging the White Republic offers a surprising perspective on the forces of religion as well as nationalism and imperialism at a critical point in American history.

DIVRecovers the history of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century African American reading societies./div