Arlington County, Virginia's oldest African American community, the Nauck community, which dates back to 1844, is rich in history and abundant with bridge builders, both past and present, who have made local and national contributions while fighting for their right to experience a good quality of life. Bridge Builders of Nauck/Green Valley: Past and Present is a compilation of the stories, interviews, and biographies of these extraordinary African Americans who pursued and found success, despite the laws at the time that limited their access to everything from home loans to education. The perseverance of the pioneers of Nauck is alive through their accomplishments, triumphs, and achievements. Whether in their own words, the words of their loved ones, or through history books, Taylor's labor of love seeks to memorialize the important work these African Americans have achieved and the legacy they leave for future generations. Said Taylor, "Ordinary Nauck/Green Valley residents surviving Jim Crow Laws, lacking financial backing, becoming economically independent, educating themselves and their children, fighting for freedom, and remembering from whence they came should be an inspiration to all to celebrate and continue sharing future, ordinary resident's accomplishments." About the Author Dr. Alfred O. Taylor Jr. was born and raised in Arlington County, Virginia. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Technical Teacher Training, a Master of Arts in Administration and Supervision of Adult Education, and a Doctorate of Education from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Administration of Higher Education. Taylor served as Assistant Dean for the College of Professional Studies (and was later named Acting Dean). Taylor retired from the University of the District of Columbia after thirty-one years of service. Taylor is still active in his community and religious community, serving as President of the Nauck Civic Association and as Chairman of the Deacon's Ministry at the Macedonia Baptist Church, among many others. Taylor and his wife, Delores, a retired D.C. Public Schools teacher, have two children, three grandsons, and two great-granddaughters. He hopes that Nauck/Green Valley: Past and Present will become a living document that will be continuously supplemented as future generations of "Nauckians" make their contributions to society.

The story of how racial segregation and suburbanization shaped lives, the built environment, and the law in Arlington In Built by the People Themselves, Lindsey Bestebreurtje traces the history of the Black community in Arlington, Virginia, from the first days of emancipation through the civil rights era in the twentieth century. A core insight of her account is how common people developed strategies to survive and thrive despite systems of oppression in the Jim Crow South. Moving beyond the standard story of suburbanization that focuses on elite white community developers, Bestebreurtje analyzes African American–led community development and its effects on Arlington County.

"Information Gathering in Classical Greece opens with chapters on tactical, strategic, and covert agents. Methods of communication are explored, from fire-signals to dead-letter drops. Frank Russell categorizes and defines the collectors and sources of information according to their era, methods, and spheres of operation, and he also provides evidence from ancient authors on interrogation and the handling and weighing of information. Counterintelligence is also explored, together with disinformation through "leaks" and agents. The author concludes this fascinating study with observations on the role that intelligence-gathering has in the kind of democratic society for which Greece has always been famous"--Publisher description.

Along the undisturbed shores, especially of the Mediterranean Sea and the European North Atlantic Ocean, is a quite widespread plant called Beta maritima by botanists, or more commonly sea beet. Nothing, for the inexperienced observer's eye, distinguishes it from surrounding wild vegetation. Despite its inconspicuous and nearly invisible flowers, the plant has had and will have invaluable economic and scientific importance. Indeed, according to Linnè, it is considered "the progenitor of the beet crops possibly born from Beta maritima in some foreign country". Recent molecular research confirmed this lineage. Selection applied after domestication has created many cultivated types with different destinations. The wild plant always has been harvested and used both for food and as a medicinal herb. Sea beet crosses easily with the cultivated types. This facilitates the transmission of genetic traits lost during domestication, which selection processes aimed only at features immediately useful to farmers and consumers may have depleted. Indeed, as with several crop wild relatives, Beta maritima has been successfully used to improve cultivated beet’s genetic resistances against many diseases and pests. In fact, sugar beet cultivation currently would be impossible in many countries without the recovery of traits preserved in the wild germplasm. Dr. Enrico Biancardi graduated from Bologna University. From 1977 until 2009, he was involved in sugar beet breeding activity by the Istituto Sperimentale per le Colture Industriali (ISCI) formerly Stazione Sperimentale di Bieticoltura (Rovigo, Italy), where he released rhizomania and cercospora resistant germplasm and collected seeds of Mediterranean sea beet populations as a genetic resource for breeding and ex situ conservation. Retired since 2009, he still collaborates with several working breeders, in particular, at the USDA Agricultural Research Stations, at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS), and at the Athens University (AUA). He has edited books, books chapters and authored more than 150 papers. Dr. Lee Panella is a plant breeder and geneticist with the USDA-ARS at Fort Collins, Colorado. He earned his B.S. in Crop and Soil Science from Michigan State University, an M.S. in Plant Breeding from Texas A&M University, and a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California at Davis. His research focus is developing disease resistant germplasm using sugar beet wild relatives. He is chairman of the USDA-ARS Sugar Beet Crop Germplasm Committee and has collected and worked extensively with sea beet. Dr. Robert T. Lewellen was raised on a ranch in Eastern Oregon and obtained a B.S. in Crop Science from Oregon State University followed by a Ph.D. from Montana State University in Genetics. From 1966 to 2008 he was a research geneticist for the USDA-ARS at Salinas, California, where he studied the genetics of sugar beet and as a plant breeder, often used sea beet as a genetic source to produce many pest and disease resistant sugar beet germplasm and parental lines, while authoring more than 100 publications.