American presidents often engage in intensive campaigns to obtain public support for their policy initiatives. This core strategy for governing is based on the premise that if presidents are skilled enough to exploit the “bully pulpit,” they can successfully persuade or even mobilize public opinion on behalf of their legislative goals. In this book, George Edwards analyzes the results of hundreds of public opinion polls from recent presidencies to assess the success of these efforts. Surprisingly, he finds that presidents typically are not able to change public opinion; even great communicators usually fail to obtain the public’s support for their high-priority initiatives. Focusing on presidents’ personae, their messages, and the American public, he explains why presidents are often unable to move public opinion and suggests that their efforts to do so may be counterproductive. Edwards argues that shoring up previously existing support is the principal benefit of going public and that “staying private”—negotiating quietly with elites—may often be more conducive to a president’s legislative success.

A classic example of how good intelligence, though supposedly wanted and sought, is seldom recognized and used for our best national interests.

A choral worship cantata for SATB with SST Soli composed by Felix Mendelssohn.

Contributions by Cynthia Neese Bailes, Nina Batt, Lijun Bi, Hélène Charderon, Stuart Ching, Helene Ehriander, Xiangshu Fang, Sara Kersten-Parish, Helen Kilpatrick, Jessica Kirkness, Sung-Ae Lee, Jann Pataray-Ching, Angela Schill, Josh Simpson, John Stephens, Corinne Walsh, Nerida Wayland, and Vivian Yenika-Agbaw Children, Deafness, and Deaf Cultures in Popular Media examines how creative works have depicted what it means to be a deaf or hard of hearing child in the modern world. In this collection of critical essays, scholars discuss works that cover wide-ranging subjects and themes: growing up deaf in a hearing world, stigmas associated with deafness, rival modes of communication, friendship and discrimination, intergenerational tensions between hearing and nonhearing family members, and the complications of establishing self-identity in increasingly complex societies. Contributors explore most of the major genres of children’s literature and film, including realistic fiction, particularly young adult novels, as well as works that make deft use of humor and parody. Further, scholars consider the expressive power of multimodal forms such as graphic novel and film to depict experience from the perspective of children. Representation of the point of view of child characters is central to this body of work and to the intersections of deafness with discourses of diversity and social justice. The child point of view supports a subtle advocacy of a wider understanding of the multiple ways of being D/deaf and the capacity of D/deaf children to give meaning to their unique experiences, especially as they find themselves moving between hearing and Deaf communities. These essays will alert scholars of children’s literature, as well as the reading public, to the many representations of deafness that, like deafness itself, pervade all cultures and are not limited to specific racial or sociocultural groups.

The book is entitled Life in Idleness. So basically the book is on not wasting our time or our lives on things not serious or trying to make the reader think more about what he says and does in life so he can do things that are productive and not unproductive to himself or society. I wrote it with an aim to be more productive, and only be productive and not idle in our lives, or well get nowhere. If we do things in idleness while our lives stands still and make no gains in the world, time keeps creeping by without us noticing it, and we continue to get older and not realize that we have become unproductive in society. In the end, all we gain in life those that decides to live a life in idleness is time moving by while his or her life stands still being unproductive and useless to society. Thats the reason for the clock picture on the book. The book is telling people to do things that are only productive and meaningful in order for any country or society to gain from your existence. Not doing things that are meaningful or productive to society is a burden to a society because were all born to help each other and be productive and not be unproductive. We have to seek during our lifetime professions or jobs that helps every society to learn and to make every society better either by inventing things to make every persons life better or the like. The main chapter in the book though is my new terms in rhetoric.