Explore the vast range of titles available.

This dissertation examines the beginnings of the Islamization process in Khurasan from the Arab conquests through the Umayyad period (41-128 /660-745). It attempts to establish a multi-dimensional baseline for the study of this region as a frontier, by describing the region’s geography, its diverse populations and religions. It adopts a conceptual framework that conceives of the Khurasani frontier as a shatter zone fractured by its varied physical, political, social, economic, cultural, linguistic and religious areas and processes, which eventually fused its diverse peoples and natures to create a joint Islamic community. The Muslim conquest and colonization of Khuras an is examined and Muslim Umayyad authority is divided into three distinct stages of development: one of raids (21-64/641-684), one of factionalism and expansion (64-96/683-714), and one of Umayyad governance, misgovernance and decline (97-128/715-745). Three particular aspects of Umayyad Khur asan are explored: settlement patterns, governance and the spread of Islam. Five leading Muslim families, who played significant roles in the governance of Khurasan are examined. They provide an understanding of the currents of change within Muslim society and the internal struggles of Umayyad authority in Khurasan to diminish the Arab tribal system and to develop into a society where it became possible for Khurasan i Muslims to rise in the service of the Islamic state. Additionally, the responses of the non-Muslim local leaders and elites of Khurasan are examined throughout this beginning process of Islamization. They are presented within the context of the Khurasani frontier shatter zone, in an attempt to demonstrate the internal and external forces within their individual zones of control that motivated their responses to Muslim overtures to gain their loyalty.

Central to that maturation is Jackie Robinson's shattering of the color barrier that had tarnished major-league baseball for nearly 70 years. [Roger Kahn] shows that it wasn't only the sense of justice of Brooklyn Dodger General Manager Branch Rickey that got Robinson into the majors. \"Baseball integration,\" he writes, \"proceeds from the passion of a white Methodist Republican, the foresight of a conservative governor, and a Jewish counterstrike at anti- Semitism.\" Kahn explains that a quota that limited the number of Jewish students in New York medical schools led to the drafting of the Fair Employment Practice law. New York Gov. Thomas Dewey signed the bill into law March 12, 1945, making job discrimination illegal in the state. The door was suddenly, if not only technically, open for blacks to play in the majors. Kahn quotes Rickey, \" 'Having the law on my side when I signed Robinson was a comfort, during some dark days. A comfort like religion. You can understand what I mean. I'm an institutional kind of man.' \"

Oddly, it's [Joe Frazier] who again gets the short end of the stick. Still embittered about the three brawls with [Muhammad Ali], Frazier seems never to have recovered from what he sees as betrayal by his old friend Ali. Frazier helped when Ali lost the title for refusing military service, and Ali repaid him with years of racially tinged taunts and insults ranging from \"Uncle Tom\" to \"gorilla.\"

It's a Christmas suicide that first drives a small wedge between childhood friends Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda. But as the lush novel progresses and the years and circumstances pass, the pair continues to carry their friendship and their love of the Nebraska plains with them. As Jim says to Antonia, \"You really are a part of me.\" To which Antonia responds, \"Ain't it wonderful, Jim, how much people can mean to each other?\" Yes, it is.

[Bruce Olds]' prose fits the introverted, rapier-witted [Holliday] perfectly. We get plenty of Doc's physical sicknesses--consumptive sweats and blood-red coughs--and plenty more of the emotional and spiritual ones. Olds holds epistemological court on poker playing (\"Tinhorns and old hands don't mix\"), carnal pleasures (mostly at the loins of Holliday's hooker with a heart of gold, Kate Elder), gunfighting (Olds quotes William Burroughs, \"The gunfight was a spiritual exercise.\") and the limitations of facts and biography in explaining a person's life (Holliday himself says, \"If I were a story, one of those BAD ones I mean, I would go out in a blaze of glory.\"). To get an idea of exactly what Olds is up to, imagine a younger Milan Kundera saddling his horse of philosophical underpinnings and galloping through the Wild West with several bottles of John Barth's Linguistic Glee Tonic stashed in the saddlebags.

Out on parole, [Booker Short] hops a train to Kansas City to search out Mercury Chapman, [Isaac Bentham]'s WWII commander. Booker knows that during the Battle of the Bulge, Isaac saved Mercury's life. Isaac's grudge, involving a massive injustice before the battle, then becomes Booker's. Booker feels Mercury owes him, tells him such, and Mercury, guilt-laden, secures Booker a job at a private hunting club outside the city limits.

[Bill Veeck] twisted the major-league rule book any and every way he could, and he had to pull similar financial shenanigans to snag ownership of all his teams. Most real fans loved his daring, fairness, determination, whimsy and lack of pretension, and that common touch helped his clubs shatter countless attendance records. As Veeck was fond of saying, \"the knowledge of the game is usually in inverse proportion to the price of the seats.\" But there were plenty of stuffed shirts, especially Commissioner Ford Frick, who found Veeck an an insufferable buffoon bent on ruining the sanctity of America's pristine pastime. And as Veeck tells it, the powers that be never hesitated to shoo him away, conspire against him, deride his ideas, stab him in the back and, once, flat-out boot him out of baseball.

Here are just some of those efforts: * Over the past 20 years, Napa County has collected and spent more than $28 million in affordable housing impact fees to subsidize development of more than 1,400 units of affordable housing within city limits. * Napa County grape growers are unique in the state in voting to tax themselves to support farmworker housing. * In 2011, the county initiated a \"work proximity\" program, offering downpayment assistance for members of the workforce who meet income qualifications and want to live closer to their jobs.

Any book that begins with a quote from \"The Cat in the Hat\" promises to be interesting, and [Robert L. Peters]' sometimes shrewd, always entertaining guide is an absolute must for those actually heading off to graduate school. Peters mixes personal stories, light- hearted prose, a few cartoons and a complete familiarity with graduate school. He includes sharp chapters on managing yourself, playing politics, building a reputation and handling a conference presentation, as well as two of the more important topics in graduate school: dealing with stress and the social life (or lack thereof). Peters' best chapter is \"Swimming with the Mainstream,\" designed for non-traditional students as well as women, minority and foreign students. In this section, Peters provides excellent tips to overcome the various hurdles that do, sadly, still exist. \"Getting What You Came For\" treats potential graduate students as the complex individuals they are instead of maladroit buffoons with thick glasses. And, happily, Peters points out the second rule of grad school: \"Don't self-medicate.\"

With a chapter breakdown that includes prophets, fallen angels, saints, saviors and gods, the book wanders through sports history with sizzling prose, loads of photographs and, for effect, plenty of Renaissance religious paintings. The subject alone is intriguing, but ESPN gathered up some of the most excellent disciples of writing. Hunter Thompson takes the introduction, bringing his usual scathing prose and a great story about Richard Nixon. Robert Lipsyte promulgates the prophets, while Peter Carlson, in perhaps the book's finest chapter, presents the defrocked: Ty Cobb, Pete Rose, Bob Knight, Billy Martin and, of course, O.J. Simpson. Ralph Wiley raises the saviors, such as Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson; and George Plimpton reveres the gods: Vince Lombardi, Ted Williams, Bill Russell, Jim Brown and a few other, lesser deities.