In this book, Alan Krell investigates the place barbed wire holds in the social imagination.

The Ridgeway family faces their greatest challenge when a devastating drought threatens to spark an open range war, forcing them to fight for their ranch, their dream—and their lives . . . DEATH BY THE DEVIL’S ROPE It’s the summer of 1883. A severe drought threatens to bankrupt the Ridgeway’s Rocking R Ranch and every rancher in northwest Texas. The cattle are thirsty and hungry. The ranchers are getting desperate. And a simple new invention called barbed wire—the devil’s rope—is their only defense against illegal herders grazing on their land. Percy Ridgeway and his brother Eli are working overtime to stake a fence around their sixty thousand acres. But someone keeps cutting the wires. The Ridgeways keep fixing them. And soon Perry is tangled in a high-stakes showdown with a thieving cattleman named Northcutt and his cutthroat henchmen. Let the battle begin . . . History would call it the Fence Wars of 1883. The Ridgeways would call it the summer they fought back—come hell or dry water . . .

From the coal mines of West Virginia to the snowy slopes of the Rocky Mountains, this fast paced story follows the twists and turns that are encountered by three young survivors determined to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. Blinded by the choking storms of the prairie dust bowl, the youngsters track the elusive dust devils through hell and high water. The Devil's Rope has twists and turns that will leave your stomach knotted. The three unlikely characters that hunt the elusive serial killers will amaze you with their tenacity and true grit. Despite the gravity of the situations that unfold, the young hunters of the dust devils will steal your heart with their zest for life and the interactions between each other and the multitude of characters they meet along the trail.

"It's a story of buried secrets that can torture a man for life."--Back cover.

This is a complete English translation of a Renaissance exorcist's manual. It is a concise history of demonology and contains accounts of seven exorcisms as well as Menghi's manual. Paxia's commentary explains what the signs of demonic possession are and who are the most vulnerable. Paxia also looks at Menghi's life in detail, including how he exorcised people and what objects he used during the ceremony.