Kentucky's rich archaeological heritage spans thousands of years, and the Commonwealth remains fertile ground for study of the people who inhabited the midcontinent before, during, and after European settlement. This long-awaited volume brings together the most recent research on Kentucky's prehistory and early history, presenting both an accurate descriptive and an authoritative interpretation of Kentucky's past. The book is arranged chronologically—from the Ice Age to modern times, when issues of preservation and conservation have overtaken questions of identification and classification. For each time slice of Kentucky's past, the contributors describe typical communities and settlement patterns, major changes from previous cultural periods, the nature of the economy and subsistence, artifacts, the general health and characteristics of the people, and regional cultural differences. Sites discussed include the Green River shell mounds, the Central Kentucky Adena mounds and enclosures, Eastern Kentucky rockshelters, the important Wickliffe site at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, Fort Ancient culture villages, and the fortified towns of the Mississippian period in Western Kentucky. The authors draw from a wealth of unpublished material and offer the detailed insights and perspectives of specialists who have focused much of their professional careers on the scientific investigation of Kentucky's prehistory. The book's many graphic elements—maps, artifact drawings, photographs, and village plans—combined with a straightforward and readable text, provide a format that will appeal to the general reader as well as to students and specialists in other fields who wish to learn more about Kentucky's archaeology.

This book was the first broad exposé of the social and environmental damage inflicted by the growth of corporate agriculture in California. Factories in the Field—together with the work of Dorothea Lange, Paul Taylor, and John Steinbeck—dramatizes the misery of the dust bowl migrants hoping to find work in California agriculture. McWilliams starts with the scandals of the Spanish land grant purchases, and continues on to examine the experience of the various ethnic groups that have provided labor for California's agricultural industry—Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos, Armenians—the strikes, and the efforts to organize labor unions

While covering the fascinating history of wind power as a whole, this timely handbook focuses on current technological developments and the promise—and pitfalls—of wind energy as part of the world's energy future. The use of wind power for the generation of electricity holds vast potential for solving the world's energy problems, but numerous technical and social issues must be addressed before that potential can be realized. This handbook will both educate students about current issues related to wind energy and introduce the ways in which mankind has harnessed the wind through the ages. The book covers topics as diverse as early windmills in Europe, the United States, China, and the Middle East; the development of wind farms for electricity generation; and political factors involved in the development of wind energy today. Conventional wind turbine mechanics are explained, as are the technical improvements that drive modern wind turbines and other wind systems. What makes the handbook unique is that it combines hard science with perspective pieces that address topics such as potential environmental damage that can result from modern wind technology, and how recent developments in wind turbine technology hold the promise for considerably reducing the cost of this alternate energy source, making it competitive with conventional fossil fuels. Readers will be engaged by extensive discussion of the economic, political, and ethical issues raised by the expanding use of wind energy in the United States and elsewhere, and they will be intrigued by a look at what wind power can mean to the planet's energy future.