Author: Irina Grigorescu Pana
Publisher: Peter Lang Group Ag, International Academic Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
The Tomis Complex discusses the ways in which the experience and the dilemmas of exile contribute to the shaping of Australian cultural and literary identity. The book, taking its cue from Malouf's rewriting of Ovid's exile at Tomis, looks at representations of marginality in various antipodean texts, from early colonial to modern and contemporary - among them Rachel Hennings's letters, H.H. Richardson's The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, White's Voss, Malouf's An Imaginary Life, Stow's Tourmaline, Carey's short stories - and argues that the «edge» is not in opposition, but in resonance with the «centre». Using a clearly-defined set of literary and theoretic terms, predominantly from deconstruction and psychoanalysis, Irina Grigorescu Pana argues that exile also correlates with an eros factor: if, as the Australian poet Judith Wright writes, «love is like a foreign land», the foreign land is no less like love, as homeland and the «other country» become objects of desire to the protagonists of dislocation and colonization. The new land is, thus, by extrapolation, a refiguration of the «old country» that is neither derivative, nor definitive, but an ongoing, spectacular translation: a tale of love and exile.
The Tomis Complex
Author: Irina Grigorescu Pana
Publisher: Peter Lang Group Ag, International Academic Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
The Tomis Complex discusses the ways in which the experience and the dilemmas of exile contribute to the shaping of Australian cultural and literary identity. The book, taking its cue from Malouf's rewriting of Ovid's exile at Tomis, looks at representations of marginality in various antipodean texts, from early colonial to modern and contemporary - among them Rachel Hennings's letters, H.H. Richardson's The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, White's Voss, Malouf's An Imaginary Life, Stow's Tourmaline, Carey's short stories - and argues that the «edge» is not in opposition, but in resonance with the «centre». Using a clearly-defined set of literary and theoretic terms, predominantly from deconstruction and psychoanalysis, Irina Grigorescu Pana argues that exile also correlates with an eros factor: if, as the Australian poet Judith Wright writes, «love is like a foreign land», the foreign land is no less like love, as homeland and the «other country» become objects of desire to the protagonists of dislocation and colonization. The new land is, thus, by extrapolation, a refiguration of the «old country» that is neither derivative, nor definitive, but an ongoing, spectacular translation: a tale of love and exile.
Publisher: Peter Lang Group Ag, International Academic Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
The Tomis Complex discusses the ways in which the experience and the dilemmas of exile contribute to the shaping of Australian cultural and literary identity. The book, taking its cue from Malouf's rewriting of Ovid's exile at Tomis, looks at representations of marginality in various antipodean texts, from early colonial to modern and contemporary - among them Rachel Hennings's letters, H.H. Richardson's The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, White's Voss, Malouf's An Imaginary Life, Stow's Tourmaline, Carey's short stories - and argues that the «edge» is not in opposition, but in resonance with the «centre». Using a clearly-defined set of literary and theoretic terms, predominantly from deconstruction and psychoanalysis, Irina Grigorescu Pana argues that exile also correlates with an eros factor: if, as the Australian poet Judith Wright writes, «love is like a foreign land», the foreign land is no less like love, as homeland and the «other country» become objects of desire to the protagonists of dislocation and colonization. The new land is, thus, by extrapolation, a refiguration of the «old country» that is neither derivative, nor definitive, but an ongoing, spectacular translation: a tale of love and exile.
Complex Surveys
Author: Thomas Lumley
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111821093X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 329
Book Description
A complete guide to carrying out complex survey analysis using R As survey analysis continues to serve as a core component of sociological research, researchers are increasingly relying upon data gathered from complex surveys to carry out traditional analyses. Complex Surveys is a practical guide to the analysis of this kind of data using R, the freely available and downloadable statistical programming language. As creator of the specific survey package for R, the author provides the ultimate presentation of how to successfully use the software for analyzing data from complex surveys while also utilizing the most current data from health and social sciences studies to demonstrate the application of survey research methods in these fields. The book begins with coverage of basic tools and topics within survey analysis such as simple and stratified sampling, cluster sampling, linear regression, and categorical data regression. Subsequent chapters delve into more technical aspects of complex survey analysis, including post-stratification, two-phase sampling, missing data, and causal inference. Throughout the book, an emphasis is placed on graphics, regression modeling, and two-phase designs. In addition, the author supplies a unique discussion of epidemiological two-phase designs as well as probability-weighting for causal inference. All of the book's examples and figures are generated using R, and a related Web site provides the R code that allows readers to reproduce the presented content. Each chapter concludes with exercises that vary in level of complexity, and detailed appendices outline additional mathematical and computational descriptions to assist readers with comparing results from various software systems. Complex Surveys is an excellent book for courses on sampling and complex surveys at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also a practical reference guide for applied statisticians and practitioners in the social and health sciences who use statistics in their everyday work.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111821093X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 329
Book Description
A complete guide to carrying out complex survey analysis using R As survey analysis continues to serve as a core component of sociological research, researchers are increasingly relying upon data gathered from complex surveys to carry out traditional analyses. Complex Surveys is a practical guide to the analysis of this kind of data using R, the freely available and downloadable statistical programming language. As creator of the specific survey package for R, the author provides the ultimate presentation of how to successfully use the software for analyzing data from complex surveys while also utilizing the most current data from health and social sciences studies to demonstrate the application of survey research methods in these fields. The book begins with coverage of basic tools and topics within survey analysis such as simple and stratified sampling, cluster sampling, linear regression, and categorical data regression. Subsequent chapters delve into more technical aspects of complex survey analysis, including post-stratification, two-phase sampling, missing data, and causal inference. Throughout the book, an emphasis is placed on graphics, regression modeling, and two-phase designs. In addition, the author supplies a unique discussion of epidemiological two-phase designs as well as probability-weighting for causal inference. All of the book's examples and figures are generated using R, and a related Web site provides the R code that allows readers to reproduce the presented content. Each chapter concludes with exercises that vary in level of complexity, and detailed appendices outline additional mathematical and computational descriptions to assist readers with comparing results from various software systems. Complex Surveys is an excellent book for courses on sampling and complex surveys at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also a practical reference guide for applied statisticians and practitioners in the social and health sciences who use statistics in their everyday work.
The Truth about Stories
Author: Thomas King
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 0887846963
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 0887846963
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.
Antipodean Antiquities
Author: Marguerite Johnson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350021253
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
Leading and emerging, early career scholars in Classical Reception Studies come together in this volume to explore the under-represented area of the Australasian Classical Tradition. They interrogate the interactions between Mediterranean Antiquity and the antipodean worlds of New Zealand and Australia through the lenses of literature, film, theatre and fine art. Of interest to scholars across the globe who research the influence of antiquity on modern literature, film, theatre and fine art, this volume fills a decisive gap in the literature by bringing antipodean research into the spotlight. Following a contextual introduction to the field, the six parts of the volume explore the latest research on subjects that range from the Lord of the Rings and Xena: Warrior Princess franchises to important artists such as Sidney Nolan and local authors whose work offers opportunities for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary analysis with well-known Western authors and artists.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350021253
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
Leading and emerging, early career scholars in Classical Reception Studies come together in this volume to explore the under-represented area of the Australasian Classical Tradition. They interrogate the interactions between Mediterranean Antiquity and the antipodean worlds of New Zealand and Australia through the lenses of literature, film, theatre and fine art. Of interest to scholars across the globe who research the influence of antiquity on modern literature, film, theatre and fine art, this volume fills a decisive gap in the literature by bringing antipodean research into the spotlight. Following a contextual introduction to the field, the six parts of the volume explore the latest research on subjects that range from the Lord of the Rings and Xena: Warrior Princess franchises to important artists such as Sidney Nolan and local authors whose work offers opportunities for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary analysis with well-known Western authors and artists.
Fabulating Beauty
Author: Andreas Gaile
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9042019565
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 475
Book Description
Peter Carey is one of Australia's finest creative writers, much admired by both literary critics and a worldwide reading public. While academia has been quick to see his fictions as exemplars of postcolonial and postmodern writing strategies, his general readership has been captivated by his deadpan sense of humour, his quirky characters, the outlandish settings and the grotesqueries of his intricate plots. After three decades of prolific writing and multiple award-winning, Carey stands out in the world of Australian letters as designated heir to Patrick White. Fabulating Beauty pays tribute to Carey's literary achievement. It brings together the voices of many of the most renowned Carey critics in twenty essays (sixteen commissioned especially for this volume), an interview with the author, as well as the most extensive bibliography of Carey criticism to date. The studies represent a wide range of current perspectives on the writer's fictions. Contributors focus on issues as diverse as the writer's biography; his use of architectural metaphors; his interrogation of narrative structures such as myths and cultural master-plots; intertextual strategies; concepts of sacredness and references to the Christian tradition; and his strategies of rewriting history. Amidst predictions of the imminent death of 'postist' theory, the essays all attest to the ongoing relevance of the critical parameters framed by postmodernism and postcolonialism.
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9042019565
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 475
Book Description
Peter Carey is one of Australia's finest creative writers, much admired by both literary critics and a worldwide reading public. While academia has been quick to see his fictions as exemplars of postcolonial and postmodern writing strategies, his general readership has been captivated by his deadpan sense of humour, his quirky characters, the outlandish settings and the grotesqueries of his intricate plots. After three decades of prolific writing and multiple award-winning, Carey stands out in the world of Australian letters as designated heir to Patrick White. Fabulating Beauty pays tribute to Carey's literary achievement. It brings together the voices of many of the most renowned Carey critics in twenty essays (sixteen commissioned especially for this volume), an interview with the author, as well as the most extensive bibliography of Carey criticism to date. The studies represent a wide range of current perspectives on the writer's fictions. Contributors focus on issues as diverse as the writer's biography; his use of architectural metaphors; his interrogation of narrative structures such as myths and cultural master-plots; intertextual strategies; concepts of sacredness and references to the Christian tradition; and his strategies of rewriting history. Amidst predictions of the imminent death of 'postist' theory, the essays all attest to the ongoing relevance of the critical parameters framed by postmodernism and postcolonialism.
Facing the East in the West
Author: Barbara Korte
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9042030496
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
Over the last decade, migration flows from Central and Eastern Europe have become an issue in political debates about human rights, social integration, multiculturalism and citizenship in Great Britain. The increasing number of Eastern Europeans living in Britain has provoked ambivalent and diverse responses, including representations in film and literature that range from travel writing, humorous fiction, mockumentaries, musicals, drama and children's literature to the thriller. The present volume discusses a wide range of representations of Eastern and Central Europe and its people as reflected in British literature, film and culture. The book offers new readings of authors who have influenced the cultural imagination since the nineteenth century, such as Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad and Arthur Koestler. It also discusses the work of more contemporary writers and film directors including Sacha Baron Cohen, David Cronenberg, Vesna Goldsworthy, Kapka Kassabova, Marina Lewycka, Ken Loach, Mike Phillips, Joanne K. Rowling and Rose Tremain. With its focus on post-Wall Europe, Facing the East in the Westgoes beyond discussions of migration to Britain from an established postcolonial perspective and contributes to the current exploration of 'new' European identities.
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9042030496
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
Over the last decade, migration flows from Central and Eastern Europe have become an issue in political debates about human rights, social integration, multiculturalism and citizenship in Great Britain. The increasing number of Eastern Europeans living in Britain has provoked ambivalent and diverse responses, including representations in film and literature that range from travel writing, humorous fiction, mockumentaries, musicals, drama and children's literature to the thriller. The present volume discusses a wide range of representations of Eastern and Central Europe and its people as reflected in British literature, film and culture. The book offers new readings of authors who have influenced the cultural imagination since the nineteenth century, such as Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad and Arthur Koestler. It also discusses the work of more contemporary writers and film directors including Sacha Baron Cohen, David Cronenberg, Vesna Goldsworthy, Kapka Kassabova, Marina Lewycka, Ken Loach, Mike Phillips, Joanne K. Rowling and Rose Tremain. With its focus on post-Wall Europe, Facing the East in the Westgoes beyond discussions of migration to Britain from an established postcolonial perspective and contributes to the current exploration of 'new' European identities.
Edward Thomas: Prose Writings: A Selected Edition
Author: Edna Longley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192885707
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 806
Book Description
Edward Thomas can be seen as the most important poetry critic in the early twentieth century. Thomas was a prose-writer before he was a poet. The Selected Edition of his prose, and especially this volume, shows that he was also a critic before he was a poet. His unusual literary career opens up key questions about the relation between poetry and criticism, as well as between poetry and prose. Thomas wrote books about poetry, but his criticism mainly took the form of reviews. He reviewed collections, editions, and studies of poetry, most regularly, for the Daily Chronicle and the Morning Post. These reviews amount to a unique commentary on the state of poetry and of poetry criticism after 1900. Since reviewing provided Thomas's main income, he also reviewed other kinds of book. Hence the sheer mass of his reviews, the stress he suffered as a literary journalist. Yet his criticism maintains an astonishingly high standard. Thomas's response to contemporary poetry intersects with his readings of older poetry. No critic or poet of the time was so deeply acquainted with the traditions of English-language poetry or so alert to new poetic movements in Ireland and America. Edward Thomas's writings on poetry have a double importance. Besides suggesting the hidden evolution of his own aesthetic, they constitute a lost history and critique of poetry before the Great War. They change our assumptions about that period. Thomas's perspectives on poets such as Yeats, Hardy, Frost, Lawrence, and Pound illuminate the making of modern poetry.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192885707
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 806
Book Description
Edward Thomas can be seen as the most important poetry critic in the early twentieth century. Thomas was a prose-writer before he was a poet. The Selected Edition of his prose, and especially this volume, shows that he was also a critic before he was a poet. His unusual literary career opens up key questions about the relation between poetry and criticism, as well as between poetry and prose. Thomas wrote books about poetry, but his criticism mainly took the form of reviews. He reviewed collections, editions, and studies of poetry, most regularly, for the Daily Chronicle and the Morning Post. These reviews amount to a unique commentary on the state of poetry and of poetry criticism after 1900. Since reviewing provided Thomas's main income, he also reviewed other kinds of book. Hence the sheer mass of his reviews, the stress he suffered as a literary journalist. Yet his criticism maintains an astonishingly high standard. Thomas's response to contemporary poetry intersects with his readings of older poetry. No critic or poet of the time was so deeply acquainted with the traditions of English-language poetry or so alert to new poetic movements in Ireland and America. Edward Thomas's writings on poetry have a double importance. Besides suggesting the hidden evolution of his own aesthetic, they constitute a lost history and critique of poetry before the Great War. They change our assumptions about that period. Thomas's perspectives on poets such as Yeats, Hardy, Frost, Lawrence, and Pound illuminate the making of modern poetry.
Plasma Research At The Limit: From The International Space Station To Applications On Earth (With Dvd-rom)
Author: Gregor Morfill
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1908977272
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
This book looks behind the scenes at the Plasma Crystal laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS) to see how science and research is carried out on the first physical science laboratory in space. As well as the background story of the ISS and the many scientific discoveries that were made, it focuses on the ups and downs on the route to success, and the people involved: the scientists, engineers, agency representatives, and, especially, the experimenters in space — the cosmonauts.Complex plasma research is the other focal point of the book, and this field of science is at the forefront of modern physics. The unexpected applications of the research ranging from plasma medicine and hygiene to agriculture are amongst the fastest growing and most promising areas of research and development.This book is written in such a way that it can be read by anyone curious about space, the ISS, research in space, cosmonauts, scientific endeavours and new discoveries. A DVD containing personal footage of the cosmonauts' work — their training, the experiment and at leisure on the space station — is included to enhance and supplement the text.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1908977272
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
This book looks behind the scenes at the Plasma Crystal laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS) to see how science and research is carried out on the first physical science laboratory in space. As well as the background story of the ISS and the many scientific discoveries that were made, it focuses on the ups and downs on the route to success, and the people involved: the scientists, engineers, agency representatives, and, especially, the experimenters in space — the cosmonauts.Complex plasma research is the other focal point of the book, and this field of science is at the forefront of modern physics. The unexpected applications of the research ranging from plasma medicine and hygiene to agriculture are amongst the fastest growing and most promising areas of research and development.This book is written in such a way that it can be read by anyone curious about space, the ISS, research in space, cosmonauts, scientific endeavours and new discoveries. A DVD containing personal footage of the cosmonauts' work — their training, the experiment and at leisure on the space station — is included to enhance and supplement the text.
Performance and Performativity in Contemporary Indian Fiction in English
Author: Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru
Publisher: Hotei Publishing
ISBN: 9004292608
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
This book starts with a consideration of a 1997 issue of the New Yorker that celebrated fifty years of Indian independence, and goes on to explore the development of a pattern of performance and performativity in contemporary Indian fiction in English (Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Chandra). Such fiction, which constructs identity through performative acts, is built around a nomadic understanding of the self and implies an evolution of narrative language towards performativity whereby the text itself becomes nomadic. A comparison with theatrical performance (Peter Brook’s Mahabharata and Girish Karnad’s ‘theatre of roots’) serves to support the argument that in both theatre and fiction the concepts of performance and performativity transform classical Indian mythic poetics. In the mythic symbiosis of performance and storytelling in Indian tradition within a cyclical pattern of estrangement from and return to the motherland and/or its traditions, myth becomes a liberating space of consciousness, where rigid categories and boundaries are transcended.
Publisher: Hotei Publishing
ISBN: 9004292608
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
This book starts with a consideration of a 1997 issue of the New Yorker that celebrated fifty years of Indian independence, and goes on to explore the development of a pattern of performance and performativity in contemporary Indian fiction in English (Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Chandra). Such fiction, which constructs identity through performative acts, is built around a nomadic understanding of the self and implies an evolution of narrative language towards performativity whereby the text itself becomes nomadic. A comparison with theatrical performance (Peter Brook’s Mahabharata and Girish Karnad’s ‘theatre of roots’) serves to support the argument that in both theatre and fiction the concepts of performance and performativity transform classical Indian mythic poetics. In the mythic symbiosis of performance and storytelling in Indian tradition within a cyclical pattern of estrangement from and return to the motherland and/or its traditions, myth becomes a liberating space of consciousness, where rigid categories and boundaries are transcended.
George Henry Thomas
Author: Brian Steel Wills
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700628991
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 600
Book Description
Although often counted among the Union's top five generals, George Henry Thomas has still not received his due. A Virginian who sided with the North in the Civil War, he was a more complicated commander than traditional views have allowed. Brian Wills now provides a new and more complete look at the life of a man known to history as "The Rock of Chickamauga," to his troops as "Old Pap," and to General William T. Sherman as a soldier who was "as true as steel." While biographers have long been hampered by Thomas's lack of personal papers, Wills has drawn on previously untapped sources—notably the correspondence of Thomas's contemporaries—to offer new insights into what made him tick. Focusing on Thomas's personality and motivations, Wills contributes revealing discussions of his style and approach to command and successfully captures his troubled interactions with other Union commanders, providing a particularly more evenhanded evaluation of his relationship with Grant. He also gives a more substantial account of battlefield action than can be found in other biographies, capturing the ebb and flow of key encounters—Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga and Atlanta, Stones River and Mill Springs, Peachtree Creek and Nashville—to help readers better understand Thomas's contributions to their outcomes. Throughout Wills presents a well-rounded individual whose complex views embraced the worlds of professional military service and scientific inquisitiveness, a man known for attention to detail and compassion to subordinates. We also meet a sharp-tempered person whose disdain for politics hurt his prospects for advancement as much as it reflected positively on his character, and Wills offers new insight into why Thomas might not have progressed as quickly up the ladder of command as he might have liked. More deeply researched than other biographies, Wills's work situates Thomas squarely in his own time to provide readers with a more thorough and balanced life story of this enigmatic Union general. It is a definitive military history that gives us a new and needed picture of the Rock of Chickamauga—a man whose devotion to duty and ideals made him as true as steel.
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700628991
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 600
Book Description
Although often counted among the Union's top five generals, George Henry Thomas has still not received his due. A Virginian who sided with the North in the Civil War, he was a more complicated commander than traditional views have allowed. Brian Wills now provides a new and more complete look at the life of a man known to history as "The Rock of Chickamauga," to his troops as "Old Pap," and to General William T. Sherman as a soldier who was "as true as steel." While biographers have long been hampered by Thomas's lack of personal papers, Wills has drawn on previously untapped sources—notably the correspondence of Thomas's contemporaries—to offer new insights into what made him tick. Focusing on Thomas's personality and motivations, Wills contributes revealing discussions of his style and approach to command and successfully captures his troubled interactions with other Union commanders, providing a particularly more evenhanded evaluation of his relationship with Grant. He also gives a more substantial account of battlefield action than can be found in other biographies, capturing the ebb and flow of key encounters—Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga and Atlanta, Stones River and Mill Springs, Peachtree Creek and Nashville—to help readers better understand Thomas's contributions to their outcomes. Throughout Wills presents a well-rounded individual whose complex views embraced the worlds of professional military service and scientific inquisitiveness, a man known for attention to detail and compassion to subordinates. We also meet a sharp-tempered person whose disdain for politics hurt his prospects for advancement as much as it reflected positively on his character, and Wills offers new insight into why Thomas might not have progressed as quickly up the ladder of command as he might have liked. More deeply researched than other biographies, Wills's work situates Thomas squarely in his own time to provide readers with a more thorough and balanced life story of this enigmatic Union general. It is a definitive military history that gives us a new and needed picture of the Rock of Chickamauga—a man whose devotion to duty and ideals made him as true as steel.