ProQuest Congressional…where the past meets the present.
ProQuest Congressional is the only site anywhere that offers a comprehensive collection of congressional documents from 1789 to the present. This primary source collection offers students an unparalleled opportunity to understand the present by comparing today’s events and opinions with trends and patterns throughout our nation’s history. Congressional hearings offer a unique perspective on all aspects of U.S. social, economic, and political history by presenting differing views from representatives of all societal sectors, including business, industry, labor, education, health, criminal justice, and government.
Testimony is presented by foreign policy experts, economists, Native Americans, civil rights leaders, public health officials, scientists, farmers, fishermen, environmental advocates, and ordinary citizens. House and Senate publications document the transformation of the U.S. from thirteen colonies into a world power, with primary source content on subjects ranging from war and military incursions to nuclear energy, space exploration, terrorism, and human rights. When examined in conjunction with ProQuest news and archival sources, congressional content can facilitate the ability of even novice researchers to develop critical thinking skills necessary for full participation as citizens and workers in a secure and competitive society of the future.
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Image descriptions
Image one: E-Book titled Tulip in the Desert: A Selection of the Poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (1999) - synopsis: Muhammad Iqbal (1877 1938) is one of the pre-eminent writers of the Indian subcontinent and the attention he has received from writers, translators and critics in western as well as Islamic countries testifies to his stature as a world literary figure. In his translation of Iqbal s poetry, Mustansir Mir seeks to convey every level of meaning and mood in the poems, while making the text as readable and idiomatic as possible.
Image two: E-Book titled Arrival Cities: Migrating Artists and New Metropolitan Topographies in the 20th Century (2020) - synopsis: Exile and migration played a critical role in the diffusion and development of modernism around the globe yet have long remained largely understudied phenomena within art historiography. Focusing on the intersections of exile, artistic practice and urban space, this volume brings together contributions by international researchers committed to revising the historiography of modern art. It pays particular attention to metropolitan areas that were settled by migrant artists in the first half of the 20th century. These arrival cities developed into hubs of artistic activities and transcultural contact zones where ideas circulated, collaborations emerged, and concepts developed.
Image one: E-book titled The Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief (2007) - synopsis: In this provocative study, Michael R. Trimble, M.D., tackles the interrelationship between brain function, language, art—especially music and poetry—and religion. By examining the breakdown of language in several neuropsychiatric disorders, he identifies brain circuits that are involved with metaphor, poetry, music, and religious experiences. Drawing on this body of evidence, Trimble argues that religious experiences and beliefs are explicable biologically and relate to brain function, especially of the nondominant hemisphere.
Image two: E-book titled The Afterlives of Animals: A Museum Menagerie (2011) - synopsis: This collection of essays—from a broad array of contributors, including anthropologists, curators, fine artists, geographers, historians, and journalists—comprises short "biographies" of a number of famous taxidermized animals. Each essay traces the life, death, and museum "afterlife" of a specific creature, illuminating the overlooked role of the dead beast in the modern human-animal encounter through practices as disparate as hunting and zookeeping.
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Picture of a painting of Sappho with her poem "To a Girl in a Garden:"
O soft and dainty maiden, from afar I watch you, as amidst the flowers you move, And pluck them, singing. More golden than all gold your tresses are: Never was harp-note like your voice, my love, Your voice sweet-ringing.
Image one: E-book titled Syria's Monuments: Their Survival and Destruction (2016) - synopsis: Syria's Monuments: Their Survival and Destruction examines the fate of the various monuments in Syria (including present-day Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine/Israel) from Late Antiquity to the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. It examines travellers’ accounts, mainly from the 17th to 19th centuries, which describe religious buildings and housing in numbers and quality unknown elsewhere. The book charts the reasons why monuments lived or died, varying from earthquakes and desertification to neglect and re-use, and sets the political and social context for the Empire’s transformation toward a modern state, provoked by Western trade and example.
Image two: E-book titled Modern Architecture in Mexico City: History, Representation, and the Shaping of a Capital (2017) - synopsis: Mexico City became one of the centers of architectural modernism in the Americas in the first half of the twentieth century. Through an exploration of schools, a university campus, a government ministry, a workers' park, and houses for Diego Rivera and Luis Barragán, Kathryn O'Rourke offers a new interpretation of modern architecture in the Mexican capital, showing close links between design, evolving understandings of national architectural history, folk art, and social reform.
Picture of Edna St. Vincent Millay with her poem "The True Encounter:"
"Wolf!" cried my cunning heart At every sheep it spied, And roused the countryside. "Wolf! Wolf!"—and up would start Good neighbours, bringing spade And pitchfork to my aid. At length my cry was known: Therein lay my release. I met the wolf alone And was devoured in peace.
Image one: E-book titled Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science (2011) - synopsis: The explorations within Beyond the Finite range from the images taken by the Hubble Telescope to David Bohm's quantum romanticism, from Kant and Burke to a "downward spiraling infinity" of the 21st century sublime, all lucid yet transcendent. Squarely positioned at the interface between science and art, this volume's chapters capture a remarkable variety of perspectives, with neuroscience, chemistry, astronomy, physics, film, painting and music discussed in relation to the sublime experience, topics surely to peak the interest of academics and students studying the sublime in various disciplines.
Image two: E-book titled Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art (2015) - synopsis: Medieval robots took such forms as talking statues, mechanical animals, and silent metal guardians; some served to entertain or instruct while others performed disciplinary or surveillance functions. Variously ascribed to artisanal genius, inexplicable cosmic forces, or demonic powers, these marvelous fabrications raised fundamental questions about knowledge, nature, and divine purpose in the Middle Ages. Medieval Robots recovers the forgotten history of fantastical, aspirational, and terrifying machines that captivated Europe in imagination and reality between the ninth and fourteenth centuries.
Picture of Robert Frost with his poem "Design:"
I found a dimpled spider, fat and white, On a white heal-all, holding up a moth Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth -- Assorted characters of death and blight Mixed ready to begin the morning right, Like the ingredients of a witches' broth -- A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth, And dead wings carried like a paper kite. What had that flower to do with being white, The wayside blue and innocent heal-all? What brought the kindred spider to that height, Then steered the white moth thither in the night? What but design of darkness to appall?-- If design govern in a thing so small.
Image one: E-book titled Error: Glitch, Noise, and Jam in New Media Cultures (2012) - synopsis: Divided into three sections, Error brings together established critics and emerging voices to offer a significant contribution to the field of new media studies. In the first section, OC Hack, OCO contributors explore the ways in which errors, glitches, and failure provide opportunities for critical and aesthetic intervention within new media practices. In the second section, OC Game, OCO they examine how errors allow for intentional and accidental co-opting of rules and protocols toward unintended ends. The final section, OC Jam, OCO considers the role of error as both an inherent OC counter strategy OCO and a mode of tactical resistance within a network society.
Image two: E-book titled Historical Dictionary of Asian American Literature and Theater (2012) - synopsis: The Historical Dictionary of Asian American Literature and Theater covers history from 1887 to the present, in a chronology, and a dictionary with over 600 substantial and cross-referenced entries on authors, books, and genres as well as more general ones describing the historical background, cultural features, techniques and major theatres and clubs.
Image one: E-book titled Extraordinary Partnerships: How the Arts and Humanities are Transforming America (2020) - synopsis: This inspirative and hopeful collection demonstrates that the arts and humanities are entering a renaissance that stands to change the direction of our communities. Community leaders, artists, educators, scholars, and professionals from many fields show how they are creating responsible transformations through partnership in the arts and humanities. The diverse perspectives that come together in this book teach us how to perceive our lives and our disciplines through a broader context.
Image two: E-book titled The Yom Kippur Anthology (2018) - synopsis: Unequaled in-depth compilations of classic and contemporary writings, they have long guided rabbis, cantors, educators, and other readers seeking the origins, meanings, and varied celebrations of the Jewish festivals. Drawing on Jewish creativity from hundreds of sources—the Bible, postbiblical literature, Talmud, midrashim, prayers with commentaries, Hasidic tales, short stories, poems, liturgical music—and describing Yom Kippur observances in various lands and eras, The Yom Kippur Anthology vividly evokes the vitality of this holiday throughout history and its significance for the modern Jew.
