Michael Meyer

A fascinating, intimate portrait of Beijing through the lens of its oldest neighborhood, facing destruction as the city, and China, relentlessly modernizes. Soon we will be able to say about old Beijing that what emperors, warlords, Japanese invaders, and Communist planners couldn’t eradicate, the market economy has. Nobody has been more aware of this than Michael Meyer. A long-time resident, Meyer has, for the past two years, lived as no other Westerner—in a shared courtyard home in Beijing’s oldest neighborhood, Dazhalan, on one of its famed hutong (lanes). There he volunteers to teach English at the local grade school and immerses himself in the community, recording with affection the life stories of the Widow, who shares his courtyard; coteacher Miss Zhu and student Little Liu; and the migrants Recycler Wang and Soldier Liu; among the many others who, despite great differences in age and profession, make up the fabric of this unique neighborhood. Their bond is rapidly being torn, however, by forced evictions as century-old houses and ways of life are increasingly destroyed to make way for shopping malls, the capital’s first Wal-Mart, high-rise buildings, and widened streets for cars replacing bicycles. Beijing has gone through this cycle many times, as Meyer reveals, but never with the kind of dislocation and overturning of its storied culture now occurring as the city prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. Weaving historical vignettes of Beijing and China over a thousand years through his narrative, Meyer captures the city’s deep past as he illuminates its present. With the kind of insight only someone on the inside can provide, The Last Days of Old Beijing brings this moment and the ebb and flow of daily lives on the other side of the planet into shining focus.

Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed

The Last Days of Old Beijing

Explores the change most of rural China is undergoing via the story of a privately held rice company that has built new roads, introduced organic farming, and constructed apartments for farmers in exchange for their land rights.

A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China

In Manchuria

"Benjamin Franklin was not a gambling man. But at the end of his illustrious life, the Founder allowed himself a final wager on the survival of the United States: a gift of two thousand pounds to Boston and Philadelphia, to be lent out to tradesmen over the next two centuries to jump-start their careers. Each loan would be repaid with interest over ten years. If all went according to Franklin's inventive scheme, the accrued final payout in 1991 would be a windfall. In Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet, Michael Meyer traces the evolution of these twin funds as they age alongside America itself, bankrolling woodworkers and silversmiths, trade schools and space races. Over time, Franklin's wager was misused, neglected, and contested--but never wholly extinguished"--

The Favorite Founder's Divisive Death, Enduring Afterlife, and Blueprint for American Prosperity

Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet

Reading, Thinking, Writing

The Bedford Introduction to Literature

Horatio Alger

Bryan Waterman

Ragged Dick - Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks

English and American Literatures

The Bedford Introduction to Literature responds to the teaching and learning needs of all kinds of literature classrooms -- and composition courses where literature is a focus. Author Michael Meyer understands that a particular challenge for instructors is that students do not necessarily see literature as relevant to their lives. They may be new to the study of literature, may have difficulty reading it, and may lack confidence in their critical abilities and writing skills. With these factors in mind, Meyer has put together a lively collection of stories, poems, and plays from many periods, cultures, and themes, with voices ranging from the traditional to the latest and hottest contemporary authors. As an experienced anthologist and instructor of literature, Meyer has a knack for choosing enticing selections -- including humorous works and readings from popular culture -- that students both enjoy and respond to. Complementing this unparalleled collection are proven editorial features that offer students real help with reading, appreciating, and writing about literature. The Bedford Introduction to Literature is a book designed to bring literature to life -- and to make students life-long readers.

Henry David Thoreau

Civil Disobedience and Reading

In recent years, there has been a continuing and persistent world-wide interest in the interaction between the two disciplines of law and literature. Although there have been many collections of primary texts that combined these two areas, this volume presents literary analyses and criticism in an attempt to assess the varied relationships between law and justice, between lawyers and clients, and between readers' perceptions and authors' intent, hopefully suggesting why they have continually been yoked together. One similarity between the two is that lawyers, like writers, must catch their audience's attention by novelty of scene, distinctiveness of voice, and ingenuity of design. Furthermore, legal advocates must recreate a concrete sense of reality, developing vivid and valid pictures of a specific time and place. In short, both lawyers and writers attempt to provide a basis for juries / readers to judge defendants / characters by their motivations and their actions and to decide whether a favorable ruling / assessment is justified. Collectively, the essays in this book are designed to deal with themes of guilt and innocence, right and wrong, morality and legality. The essays also suggest that the world as it is delineated by lawyers is indeed a text that like its literary counterparts sometimes blurs the distinction between fact and fiction as it attempts to define "truth" and to establish criteria for "impartial" justice. By exploring interdisciplinary contexts, readers will surely be made more aware, more sensitive to the roles that stories play in the legal profession and to the dilemmas faced by legal systems that often succeed in maintaining the rights and privileges of a dominant societal group at the expense of a less powerful one.

Literature and Law

Ruth Wodak

This book provides a concise, comprehensible, and thoroughly up-to-date introduction to CDA, appropriate for both novice and experienced researchers. This new edition has been updated throughout, with a new introduction contextualizing the development of the CDA approach, and two entirely new chapters on the ‘social actor approach’ to CDA and the use of quantitative corpus linguistic methods. The editors have brought together contributions from leading experts in the field, who each introduce their own approaches to CDA. Examples are included throughout, demonstrating the value of the method in analyzing a variety of genres of written material on a whole range of topics, including global warming, leadership in management, and globalization.

Methods for Critical Discourse Analysis

This is a sophisticated and nuanced introduction to critical discourse analysis (CDA) that covers a range of topics in an accessible, engaging style. With international examples and an interdisciplinary approach, readers gain a rich understanding of the many angles into critical discourse analysis, the fundamentals of how analysis works and examples from written texts, online data and images. This new edition: expands coverage of multimodality adds two new chapters on social media and analysis of online data supports learning with a guided introduction to each chapter includes a new and extended glossary Clearly written, practical and rigorous in its approach, this book is the ideal companion when embarking on research that focuses on discourse and meaning-making.

Methods of Critical Discourse Studies

Professor Ruth Wodak

This book is designed as an introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and gives an overview of the various theories and methods associated with this sociolinguistic approach. It also introduces the reader to the leading figures in CDA and the methods to which they are most closely related. The text aims to provide a comprehensive description of the individual methods, an understanding of the theories to which methods refer and a comparative treatment of each of these methods so that students may be able to determine which is the most appropriate to select for their particular research question. Given the balance between theory and application, plus the intended audience - no previous knowledge of CDA is assumed - Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis should be useful reading for both students and researchers in the fields of linguistics, sociology, social psychology and the social sciences in general.

Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis

Gerald Nelson

Karen Moawad

Management & Administration of Your Orthodontic Practice

The Business of Orthodontics

William H. Beezley

William Beezley

The tenth anniversary edition of The Oxford History of Mexico tells the fascinating story of Mexico as it has evolved from the reign of the Aztecs through the twenty-first century. Available for the first time in paperback, this magnificent volume covers the nation's history in a series of essays written by an international team of scholars. Essays have been revised to reflect events of the past decade, recent discoveries, and the newest advances in scholarship, while a new introduction discusses such issues as immigration from Mexico to the United States and the democratization implied by the defeat of the official party in the 2000 and 2006 presidential elections. Newly released to commemorate the bicentennial of the Mexican War of Independence and the centennial of the Mexican Revolution, this updated and redesigned volume offers an affordable, accessible, and compelling account of Mexico through the ages.

The Oxford History of Mexico

An Introduction

Poetry

The authors introduce the various theories, methods and applications associated with the sociolinguistic approach known as critical discourse analysis. The authors assume no previous knowledge of the subject.

Stefan Titscher

Eva Vetter

'This volume is the most comprehensive overview to date of sociologically orientated approaches to text and discourse analysis and is worth reading even for those who are interested only in purely linguistiv approaches to text and discourse. Its main merit, I think, is that it intorduces approaches which up to now have hardley been admitted into the universe of scientific discourse' - Discourse Studies Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis provides the most comprehensive overview currently available of linguistic and sociological approaches to text and discourse analysis. Among the 10 linguistic and sociological models surveyed in this book some of the more important are Grounded Theory, Content Analysis, Conversation Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis. The book presents each approach according to a standardised format, which allows for direct systematic comparisons. The fully annotated lists of sources provide readers with an additional means of evaluation of the competing analytical methods. Interdisciplinary and international in its aims, Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis suggests the benefits both linguists and sociologists will derive from a more intimate knowledge of each others' methods and procedures.

In Search of Meaning

Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis

Robert Thomas

Russell Blake

Brandon Hale

Jacques Antoine

Saxon Andrew

Traci Hilton

James Rozoff

Alison Blake

Roads end. They begin somewhere, too. In between, all manner of things happen: friendship, betrayal, horror and maybe even joy. For some, the End of the Road brings love and happiness, for others agony and suffering, and for a precious few, sorrow may lead to something revelatory. The potholes and pitfalls found in this anthology are many, but for every character, there is an end of the road. This road ends in a collection of short stories by 31 of the most gifted writers of our time, with stories from action and mystery superstars Russell Blake, Traci Tyne Hilton and Mike Meyer; romance stars Jeanette Raleigh, C A Newsome, Suzie O'Connell, Kathleen Steed and Anna J.McIntyre; and from cutting edge science fiction and fantasy authors Saxon Andrew, Stephen Arseneault, John Daulton, and JRC Salter; post-apocalyptic and dystopian authors Brandon Hale, Scott Langrel, Dale Roberts and Jess Mountifield. Intended for lovers of short fiction everywhere, the End of the Road is a must read for anyone intent on keeping current with the literary scene.Contributing authors:Brandon HaleRobert ThomasSaxon AndrewRussell BlakeJames RozoffAnna J. McIntyreDonna B. McNicolDale RobertsRandall MorrisJames RozoffAlison BlakeStephen ArseneaultJeanette RaleighL. S. BurtonJess MountifieldShirley BourgetC. A. NewsomeJ R C SalterMichael MeyerE. B. BoggsDavid A. CubanScott LangrelTraci Tyne HiltonJohn DaultonKathleen SteedChris WardJacques AntoineSuzie O'ConnellSherrie GiddensThomas JennerAngeline Perkins

End of the Road

The Bedford Introduction to Literature responds to the teaching and learning needs of all kinds of literature classrooms and composition courses where literature is a focus. Author Michael Meyer understands that a particular challenge for instructors is that students do not necessarily see literature as relevant to their lives. They may be new to the study of literature, may have difficulty reading it, and may lack confidence in their critical abilities and writing skills. With these factors in mind, Meyer has put together a lively collection of stories, poems, and plays from many periods, cultures, and themes, with voices ranging from the traditional to the latest and hottest contemporary authors. As an experienced anthologist and instructor of literature, Meyer has a knack for choosing enticing selections including humorous works and readings from popular culture that students both enjoy and respond to. Complementing this unparalleled collection are proven editorial features that offer students real help with reading, appreciating, and writing about literature. The Bedford Introduction to Literature is a book designed to bring literature to life and to make students life-long readers. - Publisher.

Journalist Michael Meyer has spent his adult life in China, first in a small village as a Peace Corps volunteer, the last decade in Beijing--where he has witnessed the extraordinary transformation the country has experienced in that time. For the past two years he has been completely immersed in the ancient city, living on one of its famed hutong in a century-old courtyard home he shares with several families, teaching English at a local elementary school--while all around him "progress" closes in as the neighborhood is methodically destroyed to make way for high-rise buildings, shopping malls, and other symbols of modern, urban life. The city, he shows, has been demolished many times before; however, he writes, "the epitaph for Beijing will read: born 1280, died 2008...what emperors, warlords, Japanese invaders, and Communist planners couldn't eradicate, the market economy can." The Last Days of Old Beijing tells the story of this historic city from the inside out-through the eyes of those whose lives are in the balance: the Widow who takes care of Meyer; his students and fellow teachers, the first-ever description of what goes on in a Chinese public school; the local historian who rallies against the government. The tension of preservation vs. modernization--the question of what, in an ancient civilization, counts as heritage, and what happens when a billion people want to live the way Americans do--suffuse Meyer's story.

Michael Meyer

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