The contemporary method of township government arrived in Illinois in the middle of the nineteenth century. Replacing the commission method of county government, which Illinois had employed since statehood in 1818, the township innovation spread south and westward across Illinois, almost completely ousting the county commissioners. Today, the commission format survives only in seventeen peripheral and largely rural Illinois counties. This book asserts that townships have persisted partly because they offer vital services at a reasonable cost to taxpayers, but also because of a vigorous defense of the method made by township officials with political connections in the Illinois general assembly. Discussing the successes and failures of attempts by abolition-minded citizens to eliminate all or individual townships in various counties, Township focuses on the spatial diffusion, periodic threats to, and determined persistence of the township system.

Set in Appalachian Ohio, Jamie Lyn Smith's debut short story collection, Township, explores a region and the rotating cast of characters who call it home. With honesty and empathy, Smith closely examines the strains that intimate family ties put on lives worn raw by collective history. Ultimately, the nine stories in Township interrogate the notion of reconciliation, examining whether people can truly change and if forgiveness is possible.

"It would not seem so important for southern writers to justify writing about the South--that region is defined. Midwestern writers, however, must first define their region, inhabit it, so that writing about it through fiction and poetry will become as natural as it is for writers in other necks of the national world." "Townships seeks to prepare the ground for that work, using the very ground itself as a starting place. Each contributor has written about his or her specific township of childhood or a bordered region that defined a first notion of place in the world. Complementing this diversity in writer and subject are Raymond Bial's striking and evocative photographs, a visual essay that echoes the sensibility of the township with grace and precision."--[book jacket].

'elegant reissue' -Plays International, Summer 2000'They are the wonderfully moving and amusing 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead',... 'The Coat' (previously unavailable), the urgently profound 'The Island'... Anyone interested in freedom or drama should buy this book.' Day by Day

Places, Towns and Townships is an excellent resource for anyone in need of data for all of the nation's cities, towns, townships, villages, and census-designated places in one convenient source. It compiles essential information about places in the United States and the people who live in them such as: • population • housing • income • education • employment • crime • and much more! In addition to the tables, Places, Towns and Townships includes text that describes key findings, figures that call attention to noteworthy trends in data, and rankings of the largest cities by various demographics. Compiled from multiple government sources, the data in this unique reference volume represents the most current and accurate information available. This data will not be updated for several years, making Places, Towns and Townships an invaluable resource in the years to come. Some interesting facts found in the 2016 edition of Places, Towns and Townships include: • While about 18 percent of the population lived in the nation’s 75 largest cities, 37 percent lived in places that were not incorporated as cities in 2014. • There were 34 incorporated cities and one town with more than 500,000 people in 2014. These 34 cities and towns represented only 23 states. • Among the 75 largest cities, Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco all have more than 72 percent of their residents in the 18-to-64 age group. • During the years 2010 through 2014, 13.1 percent of the residents of the United States were born in foreign countries. In 43 cities—mostly medium-sized cities and CDPs—more than half of the people are foreign-born. Many of these cities are in Florida. • In the five-year period from 2010 through 2014, 63.9 percent of Americans age 16 and older were in the civilian labor force, and 9.2 percent of the labor force participants were unemployed. • Nationally, Health Care and Social Assistance is the industrial sector with the most employees—16.6 percent of the total—followed by Retail Trade with 13.2 percent. Places, Towns and Townships makes a valuable addition to the County and City Extra Series.

"Since the end of the Apartheid, international tourism in South Africa has increasingly gained importance for the national economy. The centre of this PKS issue's attention is a particular form of tourism: township tourism, i.e. guided tours to the residential areas of the black population. About 300,000 tourists per year visit the townships of Cape Town. The tours are also called cultural, social, or reality tours. The different aspects of township tourism in Cape Town were the subject of a geographic field study, which was undertaken during a student research project of Potsdam University in 2007. The text presents the empirical results of the field study, and demonstrates how townships are constructed as spaces of tourism."--Publisher's description.