Official and popular celebrations marked the Brazilian empire's days of national festivity, and these civic rituals were the occasion for often intense debate about the imperial regime. Hendrik Kraay explores the patterns of commemoration in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, the meanings of the principal institutions of the constitutional monarchy established in 1822–24 (which were celebrated on days of national festivity), and the challenges to the imperial regime that took place during the festivities. While officialdom and the narrow elite sought to control civic rituals, the urban lower classes took an active part in them, although their popular festivities were not always welcomed by the elite. Days of National Festivity is the first book to provide a systematic analysis of civic ritual in a Latin American country over a long period of time—and in doing so, it offers new perspectives on the Brazilian empire, elite and popular politics, and urban culture.

The Stanford Album brings together some 600 photographs, largely unpublished, and an interpretive text to tell the story of the community life of Stanford University from the University's creation in 1885 through the Second World War. It is a fitting coincident that at the same time Stanford is celebrating its Centennial Years (1985-91), the art of photography has reached its own anniversary of 150 years since the birth of the daguerreotype. The founders of the university, Jane and Leland Stanford, sat for their wedding portraits in 1850, and these daguerreotypes were just the beginning of the Stanfords' fascination with patronage of the new art form. Leland Stanford's perception of the value of the camera as a medium of documentation resulted in a superb pictorial record of the planning, construction, and dedication of the university, some of which is reproduced in The Stanford Album. By the turn of the century, technical advances in photography made possible the small, handheld camera, and at Stanford the "snapshot" image of campus life began to proliferate. Commercial photographers mainly concentrated on athletic events, drama productions, student parades, and other campus rituals; students who owned cameras intruded everywhere with the mysterious little boxes--into dormitories, fraternities and sororities, classrooms, dances, picnics, and beer busts. The book revisits a bygone Stanford. Through the magic of the cmeara lens, a vanished world of college life comes alive again, and we can see the community that existed yesterday under the same arcades where those at Stanford today study, work, and stroll.

Migdol has included easy-to-read stories about legendary football coaches Pop Warner and Bill Walsh; the exploits of the Vow Boys, the Thunderchickens, and the Immortal 21; basketball great Hank Luisetti; golfing phenom Tiger Woods; the world's greatest athlete, Ernie Nevers; Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett; the thrills generated by such Olympic champions as Bob Mathias, Pablo Morales, and Janet Evans; and the unforgettable moments made possible by such Cardinal greats as John Elway, Jennifer Azzi, Kim Oden, Paul Carey, Frankie Albert, and many more. Also included is a listing of Stanford University letter winners and Olympic champions.

The first book devoted to the composer Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) since 1935, this survey provides the fullest account of his life and the most detailed appraisal of his music to date. Renowned in his own lifetime for the rapid rate at which he produced new works, Stanford was also an important conductor and teacher. Paul Rodmell assesses these different roles and considers what Stanford's legacy to British music has been. Born and brought up in Dublin, Stanford studied at Cambridge and was later appointed Professor of Music there. His Irish lineage remained significant to him throughout his life, and this little-studied aspect of his character is examined here in detail for the first time. A man about whom no-one who met him could feel indifferent, Stanford made friends and enemies in equal numbers. Rodmell charts these relationships with people and institutions such as Richter, Parry and the Royal College of Music, and discusses how they influenced Stanford's career. Perhaps not the most popular of teachers, Stanford nevertheless coached a generation of composers who were to revitalize British music, amongst them Coleridge-Taylor, Ireland, Vaughan-Williams, Holst, Bridge and Howells. While their musical styles may not be obviously indebted to Stanford's, it is clear that, without him, British music of the first half of the twentieth century might have taken a very different course.