Image descriptions
Image one: E-book titled S/he: Sex and Gender in Hispanic Cultures (2017) - synopsis: This book focuses on sex, and gender issues in the Hispanic world, paying homage to all who do not fit within the strict parameters of previous definitions by including broadened descriptions of identity, both biological and social, and by highlighting aspects of traditional and non-traditional lifestyles as portrayed in art and literature.
Image two: E-book titled Cuban Revolution in America: Havana and the Making of a United States Left, 1968-1992 (2018) - synopsis: Cuba’s grassroots revolution prevailed on America's doorstep in 1959, fueling intense interest within the multiracial American Left even as it provoked a backlash from the U.S. political establishment. In this groundbreaking book, historian Teishan A. Latner contends that in the era of decolonization, the Vietnam War, and Black Power, socialist Cuba claimed center stage for a generation of Americans who looked to the insurgent Third World for inspiration and political theory. As Americans studied the island’s achievements in education, health care, and economic redistribution, Cubans in turn looked to U.S. leftists as collaborators in the global battle against inequality and allies in the nation’s Cold War struggle with Washington.
Image three: E-book titled Reconstructing a Chicano/a Literary Heritage: Hispanic Colonial Literature of the Southwest (1993) - synopsis: This collection of essays establishes the importance of this literary heritage through a critical examination of key texts produced in the Southwest from 1542 to 1848. Drawing on research in the archives of southwestern libraries and applying contemporary literary theoretical constructs to these centuries-old manuscripts, the authors—all noted scholars in Chicano literature—demonstrate that these works should be recognized as an integral part of American literature.
Image one: A rendering of the signing of the constitution. Text: The Senate originally proposed to address the president as "His Highness the President of the United States of America and Protector of Their Liberties." They eventually settled on "President of the United States."
Image two: E-book titled Supreme Decisions: Great Constitutional Cases and Their Impact (2012) - synopsis: Covers twenty-four Supreme Court cases (twelve per volume) that have shaped American constitutional law. Interpretive chapters shed light on the nuances of each case, the individuals involved, and the social, political, and cultural context at that particular moment in history. Discussing cases from nearly every decade in a two-hundred-year span, Melvin I. Urofsky expounds on the political climate of the United States from the country's infancy through the new millennium.
Image one: E-book titled Sites of Translation: What Multilinguals Can Teach Us about Digital Writing and Rhetoric (2018) - synopsis: Sites of Translation illustrates the intricate rhetorical work that multilingual communicators engage in as they translate information for their communities. Blending ethnographic and empirical methods from multiple disciplines, Laura Gonzales provides methodological examples of how linguistic diversity can be studied in practice, both in and outside the classroom, and provides insights into the rhetorical labor that is often unacknowledged and made invisible in multilingual communication.
Image two: E-book titled Memoirs of a Spanish Civil War Artist (2016) - synopsis: Fontserè’s Memoirs of a Spanish Civil War Artist masterfully combines autobiography and history through the eyes of one of the 20th century’s foremost Catalan graphic artists, known worldwide for his Republican propaganda posters. The book of Carles Fontserè’s memoirs is not only an excellent translation from Catalan to English, but one central to the history of Catalonia.
Image one: A rendering of the signing of the constitution. Text: Patrick Henry was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but he declined because he "smelt a rat."
Image two: E-book titled Reframing Rights: Bioconstitutionalism in the Genetic Age (2011) - synopsis: Reframing Rights explores the evolving relationship of biology, biotechnology, and law through a series of national and cross-national case studies. Chapters examine such topics as national cloning and xenotransplant policies; the politics of stem cell research in Britain, Germany, and Italy; DNA profiling and DNA databases in criminal law; clinical trials in India and the United States; the GM crop controversy in Britain; and precautionary policymaking in the European Union. These cases demonstrate changes of constitutional significance in the relations among human bodies, selves, science, and the state.
Image three: E-book titled Constitutional Environmental Rights (2005) - synopsis: This book shows why a fundamental right to an adequate environment ought to be provided in the constitution of any modern democratic state. This book is the first to examine the issue from the perspective of political theory. It explains why the right to an environment adequate for one's health and well-being is a genuine human right, and why it ought to be constitutionalized. It carefully elaborates this case and defends it in closely argued responses to critical challenges. It thus shows why there is no insurmountable obstacle to the effective implementation of this constitutional right, and why constitutionalizing this right is not democratically illegitimate.
Image four: E-book titled A Handy American Government Answer Book: How Washington, Politics, and Elections Work (2018) - synopsis: Filling the breach and answering basic questions about how our very complex government operates and what it promises, The Handy American Government Answer Book: How Washington, Politics, and Elections Work takes a comprehensive look at the historic development of the government, the functions of each branch of government, and the systems, people, and policies that comprise American democracy.
Image one: A rendering of the signing of the constitution. Text: Established on November 26, 1789, the first national Thanksgiving was originally created by George Washington as a way of giving thanks for the Constitution.
Image two: E-book titled Ethics and Accountability on the U.S. Supreme Court: An Analysis of Recusal Practices (2017) synopsis: Do US Supreme Court justices withdraw from cases when they are supposed to? What happens when the Court is down a member? In Ethics and Accountability on the US Supreme Court, Robert J. Hume provides the first comprehensive examination of the causes and consequences of recusal behavior on the Supreme Court. Using original data, and with rich attention to historical detail including media commentary about recusals, he systematically analyzes the factors that influence Supreme Court recusal, a process which has so far been shrouded in secrecy.
Image three: E-book titled The Gun Debate: An Encyclopedia of Gun Rights and Gun Control in the United States (2016) - synopsis: Over 350 entries provide in-depth, unbiased coverage of both sides of the gun debate. Updated and expanded coverage includes new entries on recent gun laws and legislation, coverage of mass shootings, gun incidents and police shootings, plus new information from groups who support gun rights and those who support gun control in America.
Image one: E-book titled The Woman Who Turned into a Jaguar and Other Narratives of Native Women in Archives of Colonial Mexico (2017) - synopsis: This book is an ambitious and wide-ranging social and cultural history of gender relations among indigenous peoples of New Spain, from the Spanish conquest through the first half of the eighteenth century. In this expansive account, Lisa Sousa focuses on four native groups in highland Mexico—the Nahua, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Mixe—and traces cross-cultural similarities and differences in the roles and status attributed to women in pre-Hispanic and colonial Mesoamerica.
Image two: E-book titled Ceramics and the Spanish Conquest: Response and Continuity of Indigenous Pottery Technology in Central Mexico (2012) - synopsis: This work presents insights into the process of cultural continuity and change in the indigenous world by focusing on pottery technology in the Nahua (Aztec) region of Central Mexico. The late pre-colonial, early colonial, and present-day characteristics of this industry are explored in order to come to a renewed understanding of its long-term development.
Image one: A rendering of the signing of the constitution. Text: Thomas Jefferson did not sign the Constitution. He was in France during the Convention, where he served as the U.S. minister.
Image two: E-book titled After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate (2015) - synopsis: Forty years after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision legalizing abortion, Roe v. Wade continues to make headlines. After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate cuts through the myths and misunderstandings to present a clear-eyed account of cultural and political responses to the landmark 1973 ruling in the decade that followed. The grassroots activists who shaped the discussion after Roe, Mary Ziegler shows, were far more fluid and diverse than the partisans dominating the debate today.
Image one: E-book titled Literary Hispanophobia and Hispanophilia in Britain and the Low Countries, 1550-1850 (2020) - synopsis: Explores the protracted interest in Spain and its culture, and it exposes the co-existent ambiguity between scorn and fascination that characterizes Western historical perceptions, in particular in Britain and the Low Countries, two geographical spaces with a shared sense of historical connectedness and an overlapping, sometimes complicated, history with Spain.
Image two: E-book titled An Atlas and Survey of Latin American History (2019) - synopsis: Provides a comprehensive, accessible introduction to both the human and physical geography of Latin America and the social, cultural, political and economic events that have defined its history. Featuring 77 maps and accompanying text, the book provides topical overviews of the key developments and movements in Latin American history, ranging from the earliest human settlement to the present day.
Image one: A rendering of the signing of the constitution. Text: Of the three New York Delegates, Alexander Hamilton was the only one to sign the Constitution. The other two delegates had fled the convention in anger.
Image two: E-book titled African Americans and the First Amendment: The Case for Liberty and Equality (2019) - synopsis: Utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to demonstrate that a strong commitment to civil liberty and to racial equality are mutually supportive. This crucial connection is evidenced throughout US history, from the days of colonial and antebellum slavery to Jim Crow: in the landmark US Supreme Court decision in 1937 freeing the black communist Angelo Herndon; in the struggles and victories of the civil rights movement, from the late 1930s to the late ’60s; and in the historical and modern debates over hate speech restrictions. Liberty and equality can conflict in individual cases, Shiell argues, but there is no fundamental conflict between them. Robust First Amendment values protect and encourage demands for racial equality while weak First Amendment values, in contrast, lead to censorship and a chilling of demands for racial equality.
Image one: E-book titled Octavio Paz: Homage and Profanation (2018) - synopsis: Critical study on the work of Octavio Paz, paying homage to the Mexican poet and diplomat. This work was translated into English by Catharine Lailson from its original French title, Octavio Paz: Hommage et Profanations. Contents include: “Toward the origin,” “Freedom,” “Freedom and action,” “Analogy,” “Elective affinity,” “From poetry to theory,” “Otherness,” and “Coda on Time.”
Image two: E-book titled Revolutionary Cuba: A History (2014) - synopsis: This is the first book in more than three decades to offer a complete and chronological history of revolutionary Cuba, including the years of rebellion that led to the revolution. Beginning with Batista's coup in 1952, which catalyzed the rebels, and bringing the reader to the present-day transformations initiated by Raúl Castro, Luis Martínez-Fernández provides a balanced interpretive synthesis of the major topics of contemporary Cuban history.
Image one: A rendering of the signing of the constitution. Text: Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was initially opposed to the office of vice president. He later became vice president under James Madison.
Image two: E-book titled A Constitutional History of the U.S. Supreme Court (2015) - synopsis: Presents a concise overview and general history for readers and students in constitutional history and politics, one that will also make an excellent fact-filled source book for lawyers and political scientists. The chapters deal with leading decisions of successive courts and begin with brief biographies of the justices on the courts. Famous cases from Marbury v Madison, to the Dred-Scott decision, Brown v Board of Education, Roe v Wade, up to the Roberts court decision on the constitutionality of Obamacare are discussed. Four appendices deal with the text of the Constitution and amendments, the court system, a chronological list of the justices with biographical details, and a chronological list of the membership on successive courts.
Image one: E-book titled Learning To Be Latino: How Colleges Shape Identity Politics (2018) - synopsis: In Learning to Be Latino, sociologist Daisy Verduzco Reyes paints a vivid picture of Latino student life at a liberal arts college, a research university, and a regional public university, outlining students’ interactions with one another, with non-Latino peers, and with faculty, administrators, and the outside community. Reyes identifies the normative institutional arrangements that shape the social relationships relevant to Latino students’ lives, including school size, the demographic profile of the student body, residential arrangements, and more. Together these characteristics create an environment for Latino students that influences how they interact, identify, and come to understand their place on campus.
Image two: E-book titled The Battle for Paradise: Surfing, Tuna, and One Town's Quest to Save a Wave (2015) - synopsis: Pavones, a town located on the southern tip of Costa Rica, is a haven for surfers, expatriates, and fishermen seeking a place to start over. Located on the Golfo Dulce (Sweet Gulf), a marine sanctuary and one of the few tropical fjords in the world, Pavones is home to a legendary surf break and a cottage fishing industry. In The Battle for Paradise, Jeremy Evans travels to Pavones to uncover the story of how this ragtag group stood up to a multinational company and how a shadowy figure from the town’s violent past became an unlikely hero.
Image one: Constitution Week
Image two: E-book titled Encyclopedia of the Continental Congresses (2015) - synopsis: Provides an in-depth look at the first Continental Congress in 1774, the second Continental Congress from 1775-1789, and the first Federal Congress in 1789. A product of over 25 years of research, this encyclopedia contains over 500 entries and is the first to cover specifically the Continental Congresses and the persons, places, and events who had an impact on these formative bodies.
Image three: E-book titled The Death Penalty: What's Keeping It Alive (2014) - synopsis: The United States is divided about the death penalty: 17 states have banned it, while the remaining states have not. From wrongful convictions to botched executions, capital punishment is fraught with controversy. In The Death Penalty: What's Keeping It Alive, award-winning criminal defense attorney Andrea Lyon turns a critical eye towards the reasons why the death penalty remains active in most states, in spite of well-documented flaws in the justice system. The book opens with an overview of the history of the death penalty in America, then digs into the reasons capital punishment is a fixture in the justice system of most states.
Image one: E-book titled Historical Dictionary of Latin American Literature and Theater (2011) - synopsis: Provides users with an accessible single-volume reference tool covering Portuguese-speaking Brazil and the 16 Spanish-speaking countries of continental Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela). Entries for authors, ranging from the early colonial period to the present, give succinct biographical data and an account of the author's literary production, with particular attention to their most prominent works and where they belong in literary history.
Image two: E-book titled Latining America: Black-Brown Passages and the Coloring of Latino/a Studies (2013) - synopsis: Latining America keeps company with and challenges existent models of Latinidad, demanding a distinct paradigm that puts into question what is understood as Latino and Latina today. Milian conceptually considers how underexplored “Latin” participants – the southern, the black, the dark brown, the Central American – have ushered in a new world of “Latined” signification from the 1920s to the present.
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Image one: Hispanic Heritage Month
Image two: E-book titled Tio Cowboy: Juan Salinas, Rodeo Roper and Horseman (2008) - synopsis: One of the best tie-down calf ropers ever to come out of South Texas, Juan Salinas roped in Texas rodeos large and small from the mid-1920s to 1935. From 1936 to 1946, he followed the national rodeo circuit, competing from Texas to New York’s Madison Square Garden. At the time, few if any other Mexican Americans competed in rodeo. In this account of his life and career, Salinas’s nephew, Ricardo Palacios, recounts the many tales his uncle told him—tales of friendship with Gene Autry, going to Sally Rand’s wedding reception, riding on the Rodeo Train, and sponsoring seven-time world champion tie-down calf roper Toots Mansfield.
