Cultures Book Reviews Samples For Students

35 Dumb Things Well-intended People Say: Surprising Things We Say that Widen the Diversity Gap by Maura Cullen (2008) provides valuable insight on the choice of words in communicating with people during the course of our daily life. Words have different meanings in different contexts and cultures. So we should know which words are acceptable and which words are offensive, and also the contexts and cultures where they are applicable. Those who want to maintain good personal relationships with people in their social and business circles should take special ...

Introduction Culture and Leadership in New Zealand

Introduction
Culture has a great influence on leadership according to various researches that have been conducted. According to Hewison (2006), leadership characteristics are deep rooted in the unique context of each culture. There has been no generally accepted definition of leadership, but majority definitions focus on values, beliefs, attitudes, behavior across cultures and influence that people hold in leadership position hold. Cross cultural research have identified what constitute leadership and the behaviors across cultures. It has also been also identified the various theories used in description of leadership. Leadership in most of the cultures across the globe is dependent ...

Introduction

Lu Hsiu-Lien depicts her dreadful struggle for democratization in Taiwan in her political autobiography “My Fight for a New Taiwan: One Woman’s Journey from Prison to Power.” The title of the book itself tells that this story is about a political journey of a common woman that she spent in prison and became vice president. She has released a fascinating memoir that tells her political life with humor in her recent book. It is considered as a rare political memoir that is presented with candid and self-aware. “My Fight for a New Taiwan” narrates the Taiwan’s unique coalesce of autochthonic and Chinese culture. ...

Richard Bach’s Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, published in 1977, is the memorable follow-up to his extraordinary bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Unlike Bach’s earlier offering, Illusions did not receive mass audience admiration, but rather became a cult classic. There is a proverb, a quote, a saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” That is what happens in Illusions when Richard Bach, a renowned author from the West, encounters Donald Shimoda, a self-proclaimed ‘messiah’ from the East, who ends up becoming Bach’s spiritual teacher, and teaches him that everything in the world that we interpret as reality are actually ...

The declaration “It must and will not happen again” in reference to war has been repeated over and over again by people from all over the world. Indeed, freedom from war has become an essential component of human well-being. This is in an attempt to stop people from fighting, harming and killing each other, scenes that unfold in various battle grounds around the world.

Sebastian Junger’s documented experiences of the Korengal Valley during the war in Afghanistan perfectly exemplify the adversities of wars. The film, Restrepo directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, explores the life of a US ...

Book Review

The Book is basically detailed in defining the two different perspectives of two different cultures in medical sense of being. The first culture is about US biomedicine and how the medication affects people as well as how it can be used as a form of social control. The other perspective includes the Hmong perspective which is entirely about spiritual causes and other causes that are not related to biomedical performances or the concept of biomedical healing. The book is excellent in terms of how it defines the distant gap between the two cultures and uses Lia, a Hmong child, as a bridge ...

Book Reviews

Book Review # 1: Zeitoun
This book by Dave Eggers is a spellbinding and enthralling description of Hurricane Katrina. Zeitoun, a true story, tells the story of an unjust arrest of and racial discrimination against a Syrian-American named Abdulrahman Zeitoun. Eggers tells the shocking tale of Zeitoun family and has once again proves that he is one of the most impressive literary writers in the United States of America.
When New Orleans was struck by Hurricane Katrina, the prosperous Abdulrahman Zeitoun opted to stay at his place through the storm for protecting his house and business. After the passage of the ...

The Terror That Comes In The Night" By David. J. Hufford
Throughout history, human existence has been grounded on a certain pattern of beliefs and traditions that have guided them in their ever-changing environment. Moreover, these sets of beliefs and traditions have compounded to form a formidable culture that has become a point of reference to members of a particular community. However, these beliefs have been limited to what can be explained by the human conscious while ignoring crucial events that make a huge proportion of the human experience.
The book “The terror that comes in the night,” by David Hufford seeks ...

Introduction

Marlene LeGates is the author of a book called “Making Waves: A History of Feminism in Western Society.” The book was written in the year 1996 and was published by the Copp Clark Press. LeGates has written two other books as well. In 1970, she wrote “The Knights and the State in Sixteenth-Century Germany.” In the year 2012, she wrote the book, “In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society.” LeGates has spent her life pursuing her teaching career. However, a majority of her career was spent teaching history and women’s studies at Capilano College, which ...

Positive Psychology

Donald O. Clifton, a pioneer in positive psychology, and his grandson, Tom Rath, developed the "bucket" and "dipper" theory of happy emotions based on Clifton's research and those of others. Using the metaphor of a bucket and dipper, the authors purport that our sense of well-being is determined by every interaction, which either fills our bucket or drains it. Their main claim is that when using positive psychology in everyday interactions, anyone can experience a happier life – it’s a matter of choice. Whether a co-worker, spouse, child, friend, student, acquaintance or even a stranger, all can benefit – including ourselves when applying this principle.
...

Gish Jen, the author of “Who is Irish” gives a recount narration of an elderly American citizen woman aged sixty-eight-years-old and of Chinese ethnicity. This immigrant struggles to cope with other cultures that are different from her own. Although the main character has spent her lifetime in the United States, she is still suspicious of other cultures and races. For instance, she is doubtful of her own son-in-law who is of Irish origin. There sinks into deeper suspicion to learn that her grandchild has opted with all conviction to uphold American values.

Due to her distrust of other cultures this ...

The purpose of this assignment is to understand the different religions that have been studied throughout Unit 3. Vedic, Spirit Possession, Hindusim as well as Islam and Judaism will be evaluated. Lessons that have surrounded each of these paradigms suggest that there are considerable core concepts that can be defined throughout religion universally.
Lesson 10 on Christian Hymnody in Uganda explains an important issue relating to song contests. The way that Catholic Identity and African methods of expression have contributed towards observable comparisons in multiple ways.
India is the motherland of not only particular religions, but a unique spirit ...

Exam answers

“spirit of the time” Zeitgeist does not mean the same thing to everyone because it is like a snapshot of culture at any given time for any given medium of art, etc. Although some believed that Zeitgeist in art could represent an organic unity so that the unity created a total spirt.

Primitivism

art movement that viewed non-Western cultures and included the motifs from that culture into art forms (painting, ceramics, weaving, etc); respect for these cultures as better in some way from western culture

What is the difference between Modernization, Modernity and Modernism?

Let’s take a modern person, a modern person can accept the new art and ...

The four articles summarized and discussed in this annotated bibliography were selected because they deal with some of the civilizations of the first Americans, the Aztecs in particular. There always seems to be a lot of information and research into Western and pre-Western archaeology and anthropology, such as studies about Celtic, Roman, and Egyptian culture and mythology, but less about pre-Columbian America. All four of these articles were selected from peer-reviewed journals. Journals were selected instead of a book because it seemed like the best way to get a general idea about some very diverse topics regarding the Aztecs. Topics for three ...

Summary : Managing business ethicsLinda K. Trevino & Katherine A. Nelson. Wiley; 5th edition

Chapter 4 – Addressing individuals’ common ethical problems

Ethical issue when people work together (privacy, discrimination, sexual harassment or simply how people get along. Key is fairness meaning equity, reciprocity, impartiality
- Equitable is when something is divided between 2 people according to the worth & inputs of the 2 individuals. Most people think it’s unfair when 2 people have performed the same duty but receive a different share of the reward
- Reciprocity: “if you do this for me I’ll do this for you”. Most ppl think it’s unfair if ...

The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner is a book that advances the frontier proposition in the American history. This book was first published in the year 1921. The book follows the essay by Turner titled "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" in 1893 and subsequently presented to the American History Association in Chicago, Illinois the same year. The essay was reprinted many times and was subsequently assimilated in The Frontier in American History as the first chapter (Turner 7). The book basically presents the frontier thesis that postulates how the ideology of the frontier molded ...

Introduction

In his famous autobiographical book the Hunger of Memory: the Education of Richard Rodriguez, Richard Rodriguez, a renowned public speaker and author expertly illustrates his personal experiences of emotional disconnect and societal alienation. He explores how this has had a tremendous influence on his life from his childhood as a first generation Mexican-American boy.
The main thesis or theme of the book form the author’s point of view is that the society together with the education system in general requires a radical revision for it to be able to produce people who do not have alienation from life like the he ...

There is a lot of disagreement within the subject of anthropology, this disagreements come up due to the differing concept of time. In addition, ethnographical fieldwork, a field that relates closely with anthropology is in deep discrepancy dialogue on this issue as well. A number of critiques have been made on the foundation of how the anthropologists “make their object” in the book by Johannes Fabian, majority of the ideas in the book can be traced back to the 80’s and 90’s. This book analyses how time is maneuvered in a way that it creates a boundary between “us” and “them”. ...

Introduction

The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British is a book that takes us through the life of a journalist who travelled to Britain for love. She was not prepared for the new cultural setting and thought there would no much difference. Being her first time in Britain, and probably, with the information that Britain was a developed country, she thought there would be mo much difference with what she has been accustomed to in United States. She had many expectations of which she ended up being frustrated (Lyall 29). From the accent, which was quite different, to the food, to ...

BOOK BY GABRIELA F. ARREDONDO. MEXICAN CHICAGO: RACE, IDENTITY, AND NATION, 1916-39

The phenomenon of the Mexican society in Chicago has been an object of interest for many years. This issue has been examined in details and in general in order to draw the conclusion if the importance and influence of the Mexicans on the social and cultural life. However, the scholars have not published their findings for the audience’s access. Therefore, the book ‘Mexican Chicago’ written by Gabriela F. Arredondo is the first attempt to demonstrate the Mexicans experience within the American society and their cooperation. The ...

Chapter 1

The main idea of “The Matthew Effect” is that people frequently attribute success to individual characteristics that they consider to be rare, such as genius or talent. However, oftentimes the real explanation for that success has to do with advantages that are not accessible to the public. The analogy that he provides has to do with the factors that create the tallest tree in a particular forest. It is true that the tree came from a quality seed, but that seed (and sapling) did not have any other trees blocking its sunlight, and the seed was planted in fertile ...

The novella, Heart of Darkness is, in the literature world, considered one of the greatest cultural literary works of the 19th century. Conrad takes us through the experiences of the European colonialists in the heart of Africa. The clash of the European and non-European customs form the basis of Conrad's writings. The book has garnered a lot of criticism from African scholars who argue that the book negatively targets the African nation and the African people. The book, according to Chinua Achebe is a mockery of the African people. It ridicules the customs of the native Africans, terming Africa ...

Daniel Quinn's philosophical novel “Ishmael” begins with the reading of the newspaper. The narrator reads this newspaper with the interest especially one advertisement that was about the search of student, who wants to save the world. All his life, the narrator looked for such person and now he has found him. He has doubt about this ad, but he goes to the specified place. He sees only one gorilla in one of the offices that can speak with him telepathically. He understands that this gorilla will be his teacher that he sought.

The name of this gorilla ...

Book review: Families, Schools, and Communities: Building Partnerships for Educating Children, 5th Edition by Chandler H. Barbour, Nita H. Barbour and Patricia A. Scully

Introduction

Families, Schools, and Communities: Building Partnerships for Educating Children, 5th Edition offers more choices for teachers and students than the previous editions. The authors are all educators and their combined experience easily reaches 100 years. Professor Chandler Barbour has retired from an elementary school teaching career but he is still actively involved as a volunteer to his community’s projects with public schools, church boards, directing a fishing advocacy group and as a member on a hospital board. He ...

Culture is one thing that we human beings all have. Conversely, different ethnic communities are associated with different cultures. This is in most cases an added advantage as diversity caused by the different cultures is usually one that contributes to the fun in life. In the case that we all had the same cultures, then there would be nothing to learn. We would be waking up in the same routine day in day out and, in the long run, life would be rather boring. However, with the diversity created by the vast number of ethnical groups, it becomes fun ...

Article Review: African Theology - Roman Catholic, and Asian Theology – Roman Catholic in Global Dictionary of Theology: A Resource for the Worldwide Church

The two articles being reviewed and compared here are African Theology – Roman Catholic, and Asian Theology - Roman Catholic, both taken from the Global Dictionary of Theology: A Resource for the Worldwide Church, edited by William A. Dyrness and Veli-Matti Karkkainen.
Both articles begin with an overview of their interaction with diversity and it is at the very onset that the reader realizes that the two theologies vary greatly in their follower base. Despite its ...

Hernstein & Murray’s The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, offers a controversial statistical argument about social stratification and race being concretely linked to intelligence. However, the book more effectively investigates the consequences of American social stratification. The rich and educated members of society are increasingly isolating themselves in zip code enclaves instead of contributing to the American ideal of diversity. As a result, society has become increasingly divided by education, class and race. Overall, the book attempts to deconstruct complex socioeconomic issues of race, class and intelligence using statistical analysis. Intelligence is an important part of social ...

Chinua Achebe, in the famous novel, Things Fall Apart, goes on to delve deep into the culture of two different communities through the story of the life of the protagonist, Okonkwo, who is a heroic character of his village in Nigeria. The protagonist is an acclaimed man who has three wives and many children. He is someone who has shown his valor and warlike skills for which he is known among all. The character has a tragic flaw, nonetheless, that leads to his ultimate downfall. He is obsessed not to reveal any sign of emotion or weakness to people.
However, ...

Analysis of Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel”

When reading about human history, there are patterns surrounding certain parts of the world, while other places don’t fit into these patterns; hunters and gatherers became farmers, spoken words became written language, villages became cities, etc. Most history books published in past decades contain a perspective that focuses on Europe when talking about the development of human societies. In the very same history books, it becomes obvious that the people of Europe and Asia were some of the first in the development of technology and their economy, but sometimes they were invaders and attacked others. This makes a person question ...

The main theme for the book entitled “The Spirit Level: Why equal societies almost always do better” was about how inequality can affect even those who are not well off. This information is vital for someone in the planning profession because the economy and the labor force affects the job outlook as well as the other important factors in a certain area. The book was well written and was done with extensive years of research, not focusing on only one country, but doing a case study on many. When it comes to someone from the planning profession, it is important that ...

In the book “The War is for the Whole Life” by Richard Hanks the life of mission Indians is explored in a historical context. Hanks examines the lives of Native Americans and the impact that missions and cultural rights played in either helping or harming the population. This book picks out some key events regarding the struggle for equality and related them to both a missionary and a Native American’s perspective.

Chapter 1: Strangers in their own Land

The settlement of California changed Native Americans in many different ways that forever changed one culture’s way of life. The detriment of Native American populations was partially caused by ...

Since the start of time, there has been a difference between men and women in the society, especially what each could do. This was not different in the Sioux and Victorian American cultures. The Sioux culture emphasized on the sanctity of marriage. Additionally, they forbade extramarital and premarital intercourse. In this culture, the role of women was to serve their husbands and act as their ornaments. They were not allowed to pursue careers. During this era, women were objectified and those in the lower socio-economic scale were regarded as fair game for men who had money and power to buy ...

Anne Fadiman's 1997 novel The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures tells the story of a struggling Hmong family and their attempts to treat the epilepsy of their daughter Lia Lee. A tremendous culture conflict is presented within this work, as the American doctors cannot communicate with the family effectively, due to the language and culture barriers. One of the central conflicts between the American doctors and the Hmong is that the Hmong see epilepsy as something belonging to the divine, while the doctors only see it ...

Book Report on Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range

Introduction
A lot of things have happened over Northern New Mexico and its Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Mexicans at that time basically called it home even though there were a lot of changes about the mountains that they witnessed. This paper tackles the main themes presented by the book “Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and hard times of a New Mexico Mountain Range”. The book was divided into two. The first book discusses the changing character of New Mexico together, focusing on the three major cultures which were a significant part of its history: The Hispanic, Anglo and the Native American ...

That Africa Bible Commentary by editor Tokunboh Adeyamo provides study and discussion of the Bible in the context of African studies and trials. A variety of articles are collected within the text that provides unique perspectives to African issues in a Biblical way. Essentially, the difficult challenges facing many Africans today have specific and understandable solutions and commentary in the Holy Bible, and the Africa Bible Commentary brings those issues to light. The book goes through the Bible, offering interpretations of the book section by section, and demonstrating how the issues being discussed are relevant to modern Africa. Seventy African ...

Vernacular Eloquence

Introduction
The HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the newly appointed Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, advised students taking scholarships in the US to be good representatives of their country abroad and also urged them to not only focus on their academic but also to reach out to the American community and experience the American culture. He, however, reiterated that challenges are expected to be encountered while on their studies abroad but exhorted them that the American people are hospitable and simple with a great thirst for knowledge. He put emphasis that sending Saudi students to the US was ...

Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History

“We are what we eat; in the modern, western world, we are made more and, more into what we eat, whenever forces we have no control over persuade us that our consumption and our identity are linked ( Mintz, 1985, 211).”
In his book, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, Sidney. W. Mintz takes a historical and anthropological approach to the production and consumption of sugar and in the process explains the place of sugar in the human food chain and how capitalism and market forces changed the status of sugar from a luxury item into ...

Plutarch’s historical work On Sparta is a vivid and compelling description of Spartan life, and their contributions to modern philosophy, warfare, and other elements of life, to which they have made significant knowledge contributions. Spartan customs, and the rise and fall of their kingdom, are both of interest to current readers, because their culture influenced the rest of Europe profoundly, even after it’s’ eventual decline in the third century B.C. It is a compelling read, depicting some extremely significant historical moments, and characters, and offering tidbits of wisdom still applicable today
Plutarch was a Greek Historian, and ...

The book by Michael Byram “From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship: Essays and Reflections” is devoted to learning foreign languages in terms of culture at primary school. Language learning without cultural dimension is believed to cause danger, since children would use it to encode their own world, with no experience of “otherness”. Teaching is determined by social, political, and economic position of the society. According to the author, internationalization and globalization leave an impact on the educational sphere, and language teaching methodology requires revision, with consideration of intercultural competence. On the other hand, language learning is ...

Un Chien Andalou (Dali and Bunuel)–surrealism/film

Un Chien Andalou was Luis Bunuel’s first film that he produced during the surrealism period. Bunuel produced the film during the Dada Movement that a group of surrealists was trying to substitute. The artists were more intrigued with examining irrational knowledge and desire, and they dedicated their efforts and time towards reconfiguring the object world (Elder 45). Research indicates that the artists of Dada drew their inspiration from automatic painting, writing, hypnotic trance, and psychoanalysis. The film Un Chien Andalou plays around with corruption of time, reality, and symbolism. As a surrealist artist, Bunuel firmly believed that nature ...

Summary of the Thesis or Main Ideas in this Book

Thesis statement
Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes use dramatic and compelling narratives to highlight the plight of homosexuals as well as give an insight of transgenderism and biological sex as part of the gendered notion itself.
Travestis are a group of males who adopt feminine lifestyles, names, and clothing as well as linguistic pronouns and depend mainly on prostitution for survival. The author gives a deep analysis of transgendered approaches used by society to understand homosexuals and LGBT prostitutes. Kulick examines the causative effects of Travesti prostitution and gives a positive and affirmative explanation to ...

(Teacher)

Space, Place, and Violence is a book that takes a controversial topic and puts it into geographical perspective. James A. Tyner puts the idea that violence can be part of the society in which an individual life. Therefore, violence can be either accepted or unacceptable in that society, depending on where the individual lives on the planet and what culture he or she is a part of. (Tyner)
Tyner proposes that violence is within the normal daily life of most people. Violence does not have to leave bruises, scars, or a physical mark of any kind. Violence depends ...

The 2011 publication of the Otsuka’s literary fiction tells the story of Japanese mail order brides who arrived in San Francisco little after the Second World War. Through the force of her language and the poetic elements in the style of writing, Otsuka creates a riveting recount of the Japanese women’s desire to live the American dream. The author uses one of the most unorthodox but effective style of writing to relate the story of these women. Almost all of the story is presented in the first person plural narration form where the author uses the term “we” ...

“The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn from Newcomers to America about Health, Happiness, and Hope,” written by the famous journalist Claudia Kolker after inspired from her immigrant friends in the United States is one of the unique literary works. The book gives a description of various traditions and customs followed by the immigrants and their families dwelling in the United States. Most of the customs followed by the immigrants are unknown to several Americans; however, Kolker feels that the traditions of the immigrants make the Americans understand the reason for happiness and health of the immigrants and their families, ...

Immigrants represent a worthy proportion of the population in the United States. The immigrants took part in the First World War when the United States entered it in 1917. It was quite subtle that one out of the five soldiers belongs to the immigrants who sacrifice themselves to serve the nation. In the book, The Long Way Home, David Laskin represents the heroic character of dozen immigrant men. These men were born in Europe who got emigrated to the United States in search of faith and liberty, and ended up fighting with American armed forces in The Great War. These ...

Leadership in any setting requires discovering the congregational culture that may sound presumptuous at times. For centuries, religious leaders have been confronting the distinctive cultures of congregations. It is evident that immigrant congregations fought over changing the liturgy to a common language (English) and also battles took place during the Irish clergy period. History gives information that a number of anthropologists and ethnographers studied local congregations just like their colleagues would study the remote tribes both in South America and Africa. This paper aims at putting down the ideas learnt from the book of “Lead like Jesus” by Ken Blanchard and ...

Book Review:

Baron, Naomi. Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World. New York: Oxford
“Language in an Online and Mobile World” by Naomi Baron is a thought-provoking book on the way that language changes in the online and mobile world. It also tells us the ways in which the new technologies affect and influence our speaking and writing. She tells us that there many ways this could happen, but that it is not what we would expect. There is more to language and the online and mobile world than what we think and Naomi Baron writes about this well.
...

The Immigrant Advantage: What Rest of America can learn from the fresh Immigrants.'

Cultures for Longer and Happier lives
Inspired by her culturally diverse life in Houston, award winning journalist and author Claudia Kolker investigates the attitudes and traditions towards education, hard work and health that have been imported into the United States by immigrants from different nations. She addresses the fact that natives to the United States have so much to learn from foreigners and that they should not be viewed form only an outsider point of view but should instead be embraced for the diversity they introduce to America. She argues that it is meaningless to fuss over their ...

The novel The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman recounts the tale of the Lee family, a group of Hmong who struggle to treat their daughter Lia Lee for epilepsy. The central conflict throughout the novel is the clash of cultures between the superstitious, traditionalist Hmong family and the secular, science-based Western medical culture. What’s more, there is a communication barrier, as the American doctors are unable to effectively communicate with the family since they speak different languages and use different ways of relating to the world. To that end, the book essentially studies the importance ...

‘Surname’

‘Subject’
Globalization – Meaning
Campbell et al. define globalization as a social process, which encompasses all the activities that strengthen and facilitate worldwide economic, social, and political, exchanges and interdependencies. They further elucidate that globalization is not an event, but rather an ongoing and continuous process and this process is social in nature involving human interactions and connections.
Another crucial aspect of the globalization process is that it is generative in nature, whereby it creates and expands networks, and these networks, in due course, transcend the traditional geographical, social, and political boundaries. In short, as Roland Robertson puts ...

The book developed from the introductory stages of Muslim taught in the Universities in religious studies lessons. In an attempt to understand the Islamic concepts, it tries to explain the principles in simple and familiar language. Form the onset, Islam has been a difficult subject to present to students especially those who emanate form other cultures. It is harder to teach Islam in learning institutions as a result of the cultural diversity. Sachiko asserts that Islam is best understood by individuals who have been born and raised in Islamic backgrounds.
The book focuses on what Islam has brought of its ...

The theme of moral independence is well elaborated in this book. The author of the book have emphasized on thinking independently in relation to moral decisions in the story. Antonio reflected moral independence in his decisions throughout the story making him develop and mature through such moral decisions. Antonio is faced with difficulties of his life experience and the religious aspects leaving him in a dilemma. He therefore decided to make his own decisions pertaining to the situation irrespective of religious aspects and his own life experiences. He was frustrated by the fact that the church failed in giving solutions ...

Introduction

The book education for extinction is an educational book trying to make us comprehend how the last “Indian war” was fought against the Native American children. This is war that happened in the classrooms of the boarding schools that were made by the government in order to take the Indian children away from their families and allow them to fully concentrate on their education without any interference from their families. This was done mainly with the main aim of promoting white “civilization” while gradually doing away with the childhood memories of “savagism” to a point where they can get extinct ( ...

Book review, ‘Almost All Alien’

The book by Paul Spickard ‘Almost All Aliens’ tackles the issue of immigration in an unconventional way by integrating the study of immigrant people in relation to the native people, slavery, freeing of slaves, race and ethnicity in general. The author analyses the various approaches in understanding immigration. The assimilation approach as tackled in the book requires that various cultures converged in the United States and into some modified, median American culture. He does not agree with this theory however, as African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and the Native Americans never fitted the bill for assimilation to the Anglo-American culture. ...

Question One: Is there a settled vision of human rights as the western idealists, academics, human rights crusaders and some politicians would have people believe? This question emanates from the discourse on alternative perspective by Joseph Chan on page 29 of Chapter 3 in the second paragraph towards the last sentence. Chan is at pains to explain how dissatisfied he is, with advocates and lawyers in conferences who deprecate the Asian values of human rights citing them as an excuse for the continued violation of human rights. He then states that these human rights advocates and lawyers constantly call on ...

1. “ Wa”: what is “wa”? Briefly define the term and how it is (has been) used/practiced in Japan?
Wa is group harmony in Japanese culture. This harmony implies both conformity within a social group and a peaceful group unity. This group mindset implies preference for continuing harmony in a community setting over any personal focus. This concept of Wa derives from Japanese sense of family values. Within the family, any member exhibiting behavior breaking the idea of the harmonious nature of Wa in the pursuit of furthering his or her own interests becomes the subject of strict reprimand from ...

Chan states that it is beyond dispute that Asian states have committed egregious violations of human rights. More so, it is also the case that Asian states have not lived up to the universally held notion of human rights. The whole controversy surrounding this debate on the Asian values and human rights was generated following the Bangkok Declaration of 1993. The Declaration sought to legitimize the adoption of policies and values that were distinctly different from the Western democracies concerning human rights. As stated by Singapore government spokesman, the Declaration presented the Asian point of view on human rights ...

In the book”Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors” by Stephen E. Ambrose, the lives of these two great historical rivals are revealed. The author intends to reveal a clash of two cultures during the Civil War of Little Bighorn, on June 25, 1876. His two main characters being Crazy Horse, a Native American warrior, and General Custer, a white American cavalry officer. Through Ambrose’s revelations one can gain a better understanding of their character by comparing and contrasting these two warriors, revealing both their triumphs and failures.
Culture played a big part in the conflict. The ...

What are we made of? This is a question that plagued humanity for centuries. However, with the discovery of cells, we are now better able to understand the human body and human life as a whole. With this paper I endeavor to explore what makes a normal cell and how abnormal cells affect health. By looking at “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, one can gain a better understand the enormous importance of cell research.
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is a historically based book that explores concepts of cellular growth, immortality, and the quest for better treatments and cures for cell ...

Book Review:

Introduction:
The Sunflower is a book written by Simon Wiensethal who had an experience in a concentration inmate in Germany. It gets its title from an experience Wiensethal had in the concentration camp. One day, when the Jew prisoners were being transported, they passed by a Nazi cemetery. The cemetery had sunflowers surrounding the graves of the SS soldiers. Wiensethal was really struck by this. He felt jealous of the dead SS soldiers because they had a connection to the living world through the sunflowers and butterflies could visit their graves. On the other hand, he compared his situation to theirs (Wiensethal, ...