Böcker utgivna av Texas A & M University Press

To push the edges of the known, to look at the accepted in novel ways, is indeed to stand at the frontiers of a field. In Frontiers in American Philosophy thirty-five contemporary scholars explore classical American thought in bold new ways. An extraordinary range of issues and thinkers is represented in these pages--from such core themes as metaphysics and social philosophy, which receive primary attention, to some consideration of American philosophers' technical accomplishments in mathematical logic and philosophical analysis. The authors also offer new perspectives on the work of the leading American philosophers, including George Herbert Mead, William James, John Dewey, Charles Sanders Peirce, and Emma Goldman. Not surprisingly perhaps, a great deal of the discussion revolves, either directly or indirectly, around that great axis of intellectual issues commonly known as the "realism/idealism" controversy. It seems fitting that so much attention is devoted to the possibility of some sort of middle position between "external realism" and its antipode in some form of relativistic subjectivism. For, in the last analysis, such a middle position is for the American philosophers the core meaning of "pragmatism."

Though written by an economist, this book's subject is not "economics" in the ordinary sense of that term. Instead, it is James Buchanan's contribution to what he has called the "contractarian revival," the renewed interest in and emphasis on the metaphor of the social contract in evaluating political alternatives. He believes that genuine constitutional dialogue must take place in this country if America is to remain a free society and that the perspectives of an economist are valuable in the discussion of basic issues of social philosophy. The author critically examines the basic alternatives for social order: anarchy, natural law, historical determinism, and revealed reason. He rejects each of these and opts instead for "freedom in constitutional contract." In this stance he is explicitly constructivist, holding the view that reform in constitutional-legal rules or institutions is possible. Reform or improvement in such rules is determined, however, by conceptual contractual agreement or consensus and not by external ethical norms. Further, the choice among alternative sets of rules, alternative "constitutions," is categorically distinguished from attempts to suggest policy norms within an existing set of rules. In developing his analysis, Buchanan critically analyzes recent contributions by John Rawls, Robert Nozick, F. A. Hayek, Michael Polanyi, Frank H. Knight, and other social philosophers

The ten chapters of this volume, by presidential scholars Jeffrey Tulis, Glen E. Thurow, Thomas W. Benson, Roderick P. Hart, Thomas Goodnight, and George Edwards, among others, offer analyses concerning the role of presidential rhetoric in passing policy, generating support, and promoting public discourse.

Wave upon wave of newcomers has penetrated the semiarid plains of the U.S.-Mexican borderlands. Among the settlers and sojourners along the Rio Grande in the mid-eighteenth century were the founders of Laredo, who came seeking survival and permanence in that chaparral country. Established in 1755 as an outpost of New Spain, Laredo, like other borderlands towns, has periodically been buffeted by powerful outside forces that upset the stable society and family unity characteristic of the early villa. Unlike some other border communities, though, it has maintained a prominent Mexican-American political and economic elite. Applying quantitative techniques of demographic analysis and interweaving their results with more traditional narrative, Gilberto Miguel Hinojosa tells the story of a borderlands town and its people. He shows how larger events such as war, economic depression, and changes of sovereignty affected family structure, racial and ethnic divisions, social-class relations, age composition of the population, property ownership, literacy, and other aspects of the daily lives of the townspeople. His conclusions suggest that life in these communities was far from the static, uneventful existence it was once believed to be.

When America entered World War II, the surge of patriotism was not confined to men. Congress authorized the organization of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (later renamed Women's Army Corps) in 1942, and hundreds of women were able to join in the war effort. Charity Edna Adams became the first black woman commissioned as an officer. Black members of the WAC had to fight the prejudices not only of males who did not want women in their man's army, but also of those who could not accept blacks in positions of authority or responsibility, even in the segregated military. With unblinking candor, Charity Adams Earley tells of her struggles and successes as the WAC's first black officer and as commanding officer of the only organization of black women to serve overseas during World War II. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion broke all records for redirecting military mail as she commanded the group through its moves from England to France and stood up to the racist slurs of the general under whose command the battalion operated. The Six Triple Eight stood up for its commanding officer, supporting her boycott of segregated living quarters and recreational facilities. This book is a tribute to those courageous women who paved the way for patriots, regardless of color or gender, to serve their country.

Escalante Canyon is a red-walled hole in a geologic uplift (the Uncompahgre Plateau) in western Colorado. Pioneers surging west fell into this canyon hole the way gold nuggets get caught in the potholes of a stream. Like nuggets eddying against stone, they were shaped by the Canyon--rounded off, shattered, or tossed away, according to how they conformed or resisted. Indeed, treasure richer than gold settled into that hole in time; in the onrushing current of history the lifestyle--the Old West--settled and still survives there--in fact, in artifact, and in living memories. The tale of the canyon is a tale of struggle, change, frontier friendship, and enmity that is part of the story of the West itself: Anglo settlement; conflict between cowman, nester, and sheep man; epidemics; hardships; loneliness. Many of its stories, though, are tantalizing episodes unique to this place, laced with oddity and tragedy. Using as digging tools the camera, tape recorder, diaries, memoirs, and a hundred years of old newspapers, Marshall has mined more gold than the first prospectors ever suspected lay in that mysterious red hole.

An account of the dying Plains Indian culture and the march of white commerce across the frontier. The Adobe Walls trading post was built by a handful of men in 1874 but incurred the wrath of several Indian tribes who attacked the post and burned all trace of the white man's presence.

Shows how Latin American cultures radically transformed, displaced, and subverted Spanish and later European and US cultural impositions. The author theorizes transculturation as the complex process of adjustment and re-creation that allows for fresh configurations to emerge from the clash of cultures and colonial and neocolonial appropriations.

Drawing on historical and sociological data as well as interviews, the author presents a picture of rural life in one- and two-room schools in Texas at a time when school came second to family duties, but still served as the focus of community life.

Almost five hundred years ago an obscure Spanish sailor aboard the Pinta spotted the outlines of an unknown land rising above the western horizon. From that moment Spain embarked upon an age of discovery, exploration, and conquest of the New World virtually unchallenged until the coming of the French in 1685. Not until sixteen years after the discovery of the fringe islands of North America did an explorer find the crucial passage into the Gulf of Mexico, or Spanish Sea, which then served as a vital conduit to the discovery of North America and was the theater for the earliest and most determined efforts to conquer the natives and explore and settle the continent's interior. Despite this dramatic role, the Gulf has been grossly neglected--and misunderstood--by historians. In Spanish Sea Robert S. Weddle challenges long-standing assumptions based on generalities or misinterpretation of medieval maps and navigational data. He disputes, for example, the claim that Alvarez de Pineda sailed up either the Rio Grande or the Mississippi River, and he denies the identification of the Rio Grande with the Rio de las Palmas of colonial times. He offers new conclusions on the Florida Landing places of Juan Ponce de Leon and Hernando de Soto and on the transcontinental route of Cabeza de Vaca. He suggests new motivations for some of the early explorers, such as Francisco de Garay, who may have been driven by debts to the venal Genoese merchant-bankers in Spain. Weddle further offers new perspectives on the contest between Cortes and his rivals; Tristan de Luna's attempt to raise a Florida colony from the ashes of Soto's; the continuing effort by virtually all of the explorers to link Florida with Mexico; and the multinational pirate host of the late seventeenth century. Weddle's findings, interpretations, and insights into the interrelatedness of events grow out of three years' research, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, in major archives of the Gulf states and in six major archives of Spain. The highly readable result is the first comprehensive treatment of discovery and exploration around the Gulf and an invitation to a more focused, less episodic approach to the study of North American discovery

Tom Slick was a legend among the ""independents"" - those who hunted for oil the way mountain men hunted for furs. Ray Miles traces the growth of Slick's career and the modern petroleum industry.

Who, exactly, are these close air support (CAS) experts and what is the function of the TACPs (Tactical Air Control Parties) in which they operate? Drawing on first-hand accounts of their battlefield experiences, this work allows the TACPs to speak for themselves. It also includes an analysis of the development of CAS strategy.

In the US, two-thirds of lands are private, and 85 percent of all wildlife is found on these private lands. Who is responsible for wildlife found on private? The authors examine ways that public and private sectors can work together using recreation, tax advantages, and cost shares as incentives.

K E Tsiolkovskii was a science popularizer, novelist, technical inventor, and visionary, whose science fiction writings included futuristic drawings of space stations long before they appeared on any engineer's drawing board. This title shows that Tsiolkovskii was more than either a rocket inventor or a propaganda tool.

Camp Hearne, located on the outskirts of rural Hearne, Texas, was one of the first and largest German prisoner-of-war camps in the United States. This work tells the story of the five thousand German soldiers held there during World War II. It reveals the shadow world of Nazism that existed in the camp.

From 1955 to 1958, American and Soviet engineers battled to launch successfully the world's first satellite. Matt Bille and Erika Lishock tell this story from both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Here, the author provides a history of ""musica tejana"", a vibrant form of American music. He relates its ups and downs and its importance to Mexican Texas culture in the context of Anglo-Mexican relations. He also discusses the recently-developed recording industry and the role of women.

Within the Yangtze River Basin of Central China are nearly twenty thousand miles of navigable waterways. Historically, overland transportation has been difficult, if not impossible, in many areas, and the Yangtze alone has long carried more boat traffic than any other of the world's great rivers. The collection of thirty-one model junks at Texas A&M University, twenty-nine of which are pictured in this book, is a major nucleus of junk types acquired by Dr. Spencer in China between 1934 and 1936. Representing one of the largest known collections of Chinese watercraft, it is also the only known collection of Yangtze River junk types. Junk types have come and gone as needed. Over one thousand years old, the graceful Wushan Fan Tail was still in use in the 1930's, when the twenty-nine models included here were collected. But the Postal Boat, introduced in the late nineteenth century, disappeared within a few years, replaced by faster steam packets. Steam transport and improved roads have caused a marked decline in junk traffic in the twentieth century, a trend not likely to be reversed. The models thus provide a valuable record of traditional regional types. Dr. Spencer's accompanying text discusses details of design, construction, propulsion, and use for each. The introductory chapter gives an integrated account of the development of various styles and the regional trade patterns of the Yangtze Basin, illustrated by a map and representative photographs of actual junks taken by the author. The twenty-nine models featured here are a major nucleus of the Chinese freshwater junk types acquired by Dr. Spencer in China between 1934 and 1936, and they represent one of the largest known collections of its kind.

James Hollis offers a lyrical Jungian appreciation of the archetypal imagination. He argues that without the human mind's ability to form images that link us to worlds beyond our rational and emotional capacities, we would have neither culture nor spirituality.

Presents a comprehensive study of the efforts of post-war air power advocates to harness popular culture in support of their agenda. This title chronicles the shift away from the heroic, patriotic posture of the years just after WW II, toward the threatening, even bizarre imagery of books and movies like Catch-22, On the Beach, and Dr Strangelove.

Presents a study of eighteenth-century cartography along the Gulf Coast, that reveals a mix of cooperation and competition between Spain and France. This book is suitable for cartographers and can also be of interest to the lay historian and the Gulf Coast enthusiast.

Texans of Mexican descent built a unique and highly developed ranching culture that thrived in South Texas until the 1880s. This book describes the major elements that gave the Tejano ranch community its identity: shared reaction to Anglo-American in-migration, tightly interconnected families, cultural loyalty, and networks of communication.

Ed Blanchard was known to family and friends as a wild, reckless cowboy long before horsemen of the West recognized him as a noted maker of cowboy spurs. Through Blanchard's experiences, this book traces the changes of Western life, from horse to pickup truck, from hand-forged spurs to commercial manufacture.

Gives readers a look at the brief, doomed struggle of Hungarian freedom fighters against Russian oppressors. This work sketches the conflict between university students, factory workers, and Hungarian nationalists on the one side and the hated Hungarian secret police and Russian army troops on the other.