Books by "Thomas Arthur Preston"
5 books found
Rhodes Scholars, Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite
by Thomas J. Schaeper, Kathleen Schaeper
2010 · Berghahn Books
Each year thirty-two seniors at American universities are awarded Rhodes Scholarships, which entitle them to spend two or three years studying at the University of Oxford. The program, founded by the British colonialist and entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes and established in 1903, has become the world's most famous academic scholarship and has brought thousands of young Americans to study in England. Many of these later became national leaders in government, law, education, literature, and other fields. Among them were the politicians J. William Fulbright, Bill Bradley, and Bill Clinton; the public policy analysts Robert Reich and George Stephanopoulos; the writer Robert Penn Warren; the entertainer Kris Kristofferson; and the Supreme Court Justices Byron White and David Souter. Based on extensive research in published and unpublished documents and on hundreds of interviews, this book traces the history of the program and the stories of many individuals. In addition it addresses a host of questions such as: how important was the Oxford experience for the individual scholars? To what extent has the program created an old-boy (-girl since 1976) network that propels its members to success? How many Rhodes Scholars have cracked under the strain and failed to live up to expectations? How have the Americans coped with life in Oxford and what have they thought of Britain in general? Beyond the history of the program and the individuals involved, this book also offers a valuable examination of the American-British cultural encounter.
In 'Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk,' Thomas Sir Browne offers a meticulous exploration of Norfolk's fauna, with a nuanced concentration on its avian and ichthyologic diversity. Venerated for its descriptive precision and scholarly rigor, the book intertwines observational minutiae with a narrative style that resonates with the scientific discourses of its era. Browne's work is poised within the broader context of early modern natural history literature, encapsulating a pivotal transition from anecdotal chronicle toward systematic study. The text within, now thoughtfully republished by DigiCat Publishing, maintains the integrity and significance of Browne's original insights, articulated amidst the nascent formation of the scientific method and empirical inquiry. With each page, readers find themselves transported to an age where the natural world was at the cusp of becoming a subject of enduring scholarly fascination.nSir Thomas Browne, a polymath of the 17th century, wove his erudition and natural philosophy into a series of correspondences and notes, which later amalgamated into this seminal work. Browne's professional background as a physician undoubtedly enriched his observations, affording a meticulousness that only a scientific mind of his caliber could achieve. The personal impetus behind 'Notes and Letters' may well have been the author's own profound attachment and curiosity towards the environment of Norfolk, an area where he spent much of his life and practice. His passion for unlocking the mysteries of nature is palpable throughout the text, bestowing upon it a timelessness that ensures its continued relevance.nThis DigiCat edition of 'Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk' is highly recommended for students and enthusiasts of natural history, ecology, and early modern literature. The care with which this edition has been produced makes it a commendable addition to both academic and personal collections. Those with an appreciation for the historical development of scientific thought will find Browne's detailed examinations and literary craftsmanship particularly enlightening, making the work a valuable resource for understanding the foundations upon which current ecological knowledge stands. Thus, it is with both intellectual merit and historical importance that this work is suggested to be read and cherished.
During the early years of the U.S. republic, its vital southwestern quadrant - encompassing the modern-day states between South Carolina and Louisiana - experienced nearly unceasing conflict. In The Old Southwest, 1795-1830: Frontiers in Conflict, historians Thomas D. Clark and John D. W. Guice analyze the many disputes that resulted when the United States pushed aside a hundred thousand Indians and overtook the final vestiges of Spanish, French, and British presence in the wilderness. Leaders such as Andrew Jackson, who emerged during the Creek War, introduced new policies of Indian removal and state making, along with a decided willingness to let adventurous settlers open up the new territories as a part of the Manifest Destiny of a growing country.
Even in the decades before Mark Twain enthralled the world with his evocative representations of the Mississippi, the river played an essential role in American culture and consciousness. Throughout the antebellum era, the Mississippi acted as a powerful symbol of America's conception of itself -- and the world's conception of America. As Twain understood, "The Mississippi is well worth reading about." Thomas Ruys Smith's River of Dreams is an examination of the Mississippi's role in the antebellum imagination, exploring its cultural position in literature, art, thought, and national life. Presidents, politicians, authors, poets, painters, and international celebrities of every variety experienced the Mississippi in its Golden Age. They left an extraordinary collection of representations of the river in their wake, images that evolved as America itself changed. From Thomas Jefferson's vision for the Mississippi to Andrew Jackson and the rowdy river culture of the early nineteenth century, Smith charts the Mississippi's shifting importance in the making of the nation. He examines the accounts of European travelers, including Frances Trollope, Charles Dickens, and William Makepeace Thackeray, whose views of the river were heavily influenced by the world of the steamboat and plantation slavery. Smith discusses the growing importance of visual representations of the Mississippi as the antebellum period progressed, exploring the ways in which views of the river, particularly giant moving panoramas that toured the world, echoed notions of manifest destiny and the westward movement. He evokes the river in the late antebellum years as a place of crime and mystery, especially in popular writing, and most notably in Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man. An epilogue discusses the Mississippi during the Civil War, when possession of the river became vital, symbolically as well as militarily. The epilogue also provides an introduction to Mark Twain, a product of the antebellum river world who was to resurrect its imaginative potential for a post-war nation and produce an iconic Mississippi that still flows through a wide and fertile floodplain in American literature. From empire building in the Louisiana Purchase to the trauma of the Civil War, the Mississippi's dominant symbolic meanings tracked the essential forces operating within the nation. As Smith shows in this groundbreaking work, the story of the imagined Mississippi River is the story of antebellum America itself.