International and Area Studies Commons^™

Book Review: Grasses Of Colorado By Robert B. Shaw, Stephan L. Hatch

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This comprehensive, systematic treatment of the grasses of Colorado is going to become the standard for new floras in the state. With this book the “student of grasses” will be able to more accurately identify and key the species within this economically important and unique family. Users will need to read the introductions and follow the author’s excellent instructions in how to use the book to be most successful. There are brief but adequate discussions of physiography and ecoregions that place Colorado’s grass vegetation in the proper context with surrounding states. The section on the “grass plant” is particularly well …

Book Review: Buffalo Inc.: American Indians And Economic Development By Sebastian Felix Braun, Ken Zontek

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Swiss-born University of North Dakota anthropologist Felix Sebastian Braun focuses on the recent development of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation’s bison herd program by tracing the origins, implementation, and demise of Pte Hca Ka, a corporation designed to establish a sizeable bison presence on the reservation for a variety of sociocultural and economic reasons. Buffalo Inc.’s 14 chapters roughly divide into three parts, each of which includes a chapter specifically focused on Pte Hca Ka along with contextualizing commentary chapters.

Book Review: Dirt: The Erosion Of Civilizations By David R. Montgomery, Mark S. Kuzila

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The book provides an understanding of the role that soil management has played in the success or failure of civilizations. It documents the fact that soil erosion in the 1930s in the Great Plains was part of a succession of soil erosions resulting from poor management that began thousands of years before. Unfortunately, lessons learned from the Great Plains in the 1930s have not been heeded, and major outbreaks of soil erosion have occurred since that time. The book provides an insight into the reasons why we should continue to strive for sustainable use of our soil resources. It is …

Book Review: Saskatchewan: Geographic Perspectives Edited By Bernard D. Thraves, M.L. Lewry, Janis E. Dale, And Hansgeorg Schlichtmann, Tom Carter

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

If the book has a weakness, it is the absence of a strong focus on social geography. Various chapters bring social issues into the discussion, but there is no detailed attention to poverty, health, housing, education, and other aspects of social geography. That aside, this collection offers an excellent portrayal of the geography of Saskatchewan. It will be an invaluable resource for years to come, offering a choice vantage point from which to engage future geographical perspectives on Saskatchewan.

Great Plains Research: A Journal Of Natural And Social Sciences Volume 19, Number 1 (Spring 2009): Table Of Contents

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Social Sciences

Socioeconomic Impacts of Developing Wind Energy in the Great Plains (F. Larry Leistritz and Randal C. Coon) .............. 3

Archeological Interpretation of the Frontier Battle at Mud Springs, Nebraska (Peter Bleed and Douglas D. Scott) .............. 13

Natural Sciences

Causes and Impacts of Salinization in the Lower Pecos River (Christopher W. Hoagstrom) .............. 27

Near-Surface Soil-Water Monitoring for Water Resources Management on a Wide-Area Basis in the Great Plains (Hubbard, You, Sridhar, Hunt, Korner, and Roebke) .............. 45

Precipitation Event Size Controls on Long-Term Abundance of Opuntia Polyacantha (Plains Prickly-Pear) in Great Plains Grasslands (Lauenroth, Dougherty, and Singh) …

Book Review: The State Of The Native Nations: Conditions Under U.S. Policies Of Self-Determination By The Harvard Project On American Indian Economic Development, Gavin Clarkson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

If ever a text should be required for a foundational American Indian Studies course, The State of the Native Nations is such a book. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development has produced a remarkably comprehensive yet eminently accessible description of Indian Country in the 21st century. This book stands in stark contrast to much of the scholarship in American Indian Studies, which seems intellectually paralyzed by a sense of victimhood. While the authors fully acknowledge the centuries of mistreatment, cultural suppression, disenfranchisement, and deleterious federal policies that left many tribes dependent on a paternalistic federal government, the main …

Book Review: Hard Road West: History And Geology Along The Gold Rush Trail By Keith Heyer Meldahl., Harmon D. Maher Jr.

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The dust jacket of Hard Road West promises familiar pleasures to John McPhee lovers, and so I picked the book up with great anticipation. McPhee’s works have greatly heightened the interest of writers and readers in the genre of creative nonfiction, and while for me, Keith Meldahl’s work does not quite reach McPhee’s stratospheric heights, for the right audience it is definitely a very good read.

The book is organized from east to west, forward in time, following in detail the wagon trail journey to the California gold fields. That human migration, driven by the search for geologic riches, provides …

Book Review: The Great Sand Hills: A Prairie Oasis Text By Rebecca L. Grambo, Bram Noble

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The Great Sand Hills region of southwestern Saskatchewan is among the largest and, unfortunately, last intact native prairie ecosystems in the Great Plains. The Great Sand Hills: A Prairie Oasis is thus a fitting title. Filled with spectacular photography alongside narrative text telling the story of the prairie’s past, present, and future, this 124-page book was a finalist for the 2007 Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award as well as in the nonfiction and scholarly writing categories.

Book Review: Rare Plants Of Texas By Jackie M. Poole, William R. Carr, Dana M. Price, And Jason R. Singhurst, Amy K. Buthod

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The botanical diversity of Texas has been well documented, so it is surprising that few books focusing on the state’s endangered and threatened plants have been published. According to the authors of Rare Plants of Texas, this is because “most of these plants are too rare to be mentioned, much less pictured, in standard guidebooks.” Their book, attempting to remedy this situation, succeeds with photos, drawings, and descriptions of 225 taxa considered rare within the state.

Expanding on Poole and Riskand’s Endangered, Threatened or Protected Native Plants of Texas (1987), the majority of Rare Plants of Texas’s 640 …

Archeological Interpretation Of The Frontier Battle At Mud Springs, Nebraska, Peter Bleed, Douglas D. Scott

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Between February 4 and 7, 1865, Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho warriors engaged a force of U.S. Army soldiers at Mud Springs, Nebraska. Historical records from both sides indicate that this fight marked an early phase of the Indian Wars. Based on systematic metal detections, firearms identification, and terrain analysis, this paper adds archeological insights into the arms and tactics used by the opposing sides. Well-armed Native fighters used terrain to approach U.S. troops, who maintained a defensive posture. U.S. soldiers appear to have dug a rifle pit to see approaching attackers.

Book Review: A Grammar Of Crow: Apsáalooke Aliláau By Randolph Graczyk, Rose Chesarek

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

On my desk is an old, unbound manuscript, a hand copy of a Crow grammar written by a Jesuit missionary in the late 1800s. Randolph Graczyk’s A Grammar of Crow: Apsáalooke Aliláau is the first extended grammar of my language since that time. That alone makes it an important contribution to American Indian linguistics and to the study of Crow. It is also a first-class effort. His work is based on a prize-winning dissertation at the University of Chicago, but has been revised and expanded into a general descriptive format to make it accessible to any language scholar interested in …

Book Review: Books On Trial: Red Scare In The Heartland By Shirley A. Weigand And Wayne A. Weigand, Ahmed A. White

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The subject of Shirley and Wayne Weigand’s Books on Trial is the prosecution of several Community Party members and their friends by authorities in Oklahoma City. The prosecutions, which began in 1940, entailed charges of “criminal syndicalism” based largely on the defendants’ connection to a Party-sponsored bookstore. Books on Trial recounts in detail the clumsy raids on the bookstore that set the prosecutions in motion; the rough treatment visited on the defendants by local authorities and citizens; the series of rigged trials resulting in the proprietor, his wife, and several others being convicted and sentenced to ten-year terms in prison …

The Limits Of International Humanitarian Law, Melissa Eli

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The goal of international humanitarian law is to humanize war in an effort to minimize human suffering and the long-term negative consequences of war. However, despite the adoption by most countries of the Geneva Conventions and other relevant agreements, crimes of war occur in every conflict around the world on a regular basis. Additionally, as the form of warfare changes, so does the implementation and consequences of various war crimes. Genocide, systematic rape, and the use of child soldiers are three of the most significant war crimes facing sub-Saharan Africa today. Each has consequences so severe that specific international laws …

Stress, Status, And Sociability: Exploring Residential Satisfaction In The Rural Midwest Following Rapid Immigration, James Potter, Rodrigo Cantarero, Amy E. Boren

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

This investigation examined predictors of residential satisfaction among newly arrived residents (NAR) and long-term residents (LTR) of a rural community following a rapid influx of immigrants into the community. The physical environment, social/cultural aspects of life, and resources and public services were hypothesized to affect perceptions of residential satisfaction. Both LTR and NAR were pleased with environmental attributes, sociocultural attributes, and public services. An inverse relationship was revealed between stress and residential satisfaction. The primary sources of stress for LTR related to economics and social status issues, whereas the primary sources of stress among NAR involved issues concerning family and …

Kimberly Lanegran On Justice And Reconciliation In Post-Apartheid South Africa Edited By François Du Bois And Antje Du Bois-Pedain. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 311pp., Kimberly Lanegran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Justice and Reconciliation in Post-Apartheid South Africa edited by François Du Bois and Antje Du Bois-Pedain. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 311pp.

Human Trafficking In The People’S Republic Of China, Annie Dullum

Human Rights & Human Welfare

As China rises to become a superpower and is placed in the national spotlight as the host for the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics, China is struggling to represent its ability to be powerful and stable within its own borders resulting from a staggering human rights record. Among the policies contributing to human rights violation, population controls are in place that create barriers to residence and immigration, which means that desperate individuals cannot legally move to other countries. As well, Chinese citizens are vulnerable to the practices of traffickers who move individuals illegally around the world.

Revisiting Human Rights In Latin America: Introduction, Christina Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

This Topical Research Digest on revisiting human rights in Latin America covers a wide range of subjects, both country specific and thematic, but has as its underlying theme the necessary protection of the human rights of vulnerable groups, whether they are women, children, lesbians, gay men, indigenous peoples, landless peasants, etc. This survey of literature on revisiting human rights in Latin America includes a rich selection of documents from international organizations, international human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a plethora of American and foreign journals.

Child Labor In Latin America: Poverty As Cause And Effect, Michaelle Tauson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Throughout much of the developing world, children make up an alarming portion of the workforce. These children are robbed of their childhood in order to provide economic supplementation to their families. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 5.7 million children in Latin America participate in the regional workforce (2006). It is a common misconception that children, who do not participate in the formal workforce, are not child laborers. However, the ILO defines child labor as any work that is detrimental to a child’s well-being or interferes with a child’s education. Due to the many categories and classifications of child …

Marten Zwanenburg On International Peacekeeping Edited By Boris Kondoch. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. 578pp., Marten Zwanenburg

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

International Peacekeeping edited by Boris Kondoch. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. 578pp.

The Development Of Sex Trafficking In Central America, Kate Zdrojewski

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Human trafficking in Central America has taken center stage since the late 1990s. This increase in public attention has been driven by U.S. initiatives, such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), as well as the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, commonly known as the Trafficking Protocol. The United States has the reputation of being the leader in the fight against trafficking in Central America, using the TVPA and the Trafficking Protocol as primary mechanisms for anti-trafficking efforts.

Uighurs In Xinjiang: A General Assessment Of The Roots Of Unrest, Vladislav Shchukin

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Chinese governmental repression in Xinjiang against the Uighur minzu, or ethnic group, constitutes a significant infringement on human rights. The atmosphere of repression in Xinjiang is perhaps unmatched even by that of Tibet, and it is virtually the only region in China where execution of political prisoners is still common. Uighurs are subject to severe censorship, arbitrary arrest and the denial of due process, torture and inhumane treatment, and punishment disproportionate to their crimes.

Violated: Women’S Human Rights In Sub-Saharan Africa, Kathryn Birdwell Wester

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In contemporary sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), women are facing human rights abuses unparalleled elsewhere in the world. Despite the region’s diversity, its female inhabitants largely share experiences of sexual discrimination and abuse, intimate violence, political marginalization, and economic deprivation.

Food Insecurity In Sub-Saharan Africa, Amy Rademacher

Human Rights & Human Welfare

For almost half a century, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been struggling, in one form or another, with food insecurity. This ongoing condition has been caused by a number of factors including distribution obstacles, global climate change, a lack of successful local agriculture, and an inability or disinterest to act by local officials. The situation has been further complicated by an inefficient and disorganized international response to the crisis. Although most would agree that each of these factors carries at least some validity, there is far less international consensus on the best remedy to the crisis.

Confronting The Past: Democratic Rhetoric Or Socially Necessary?, Rachel Oster

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the current globalized international system, politics, economics, and societal issues are the concern of not only the state but of the world as a whole. It is increasingly apparent that participation in the global community requires states to implement, at minimum, conventional democracy within which individual rights are recognized and protected. Yet for much of the developing world, democratic regimes are partially contested given that many states were historically controlled by non-democratic, often militant regimes that offered security to citizens during times of economic crises.

The Preservation Of Lik-Luong Poetic Literature Among The Shan Communities Of Northern Thailand, Jotika Khur-Yearn, Kate Crosby

Asian Review

Shan Buddhists use a form of poetic performance to make Buddhist teachings interesting. These texts are read in the context of temple activity on holy days. They are read by specialists, called tsale, who have years of training in the specific ways of reciting this poetry, for the rhyming systems are very complex and the texts are usually written in the old style of writing that does not indicate tone. A normal Shan speaker cannot read these texts. Even listening to them is a skill acquired over time. The traditional homeland of the Shan straddles the modern boundaries of Burma, …

Thai Yai, Shan, And Tai Long: Political Identity Across State Boundaries, Nicola Tannenbaum

Asian Review

No abstract provided.

Notes For Contributors

Asian Review

No abstract provided.

Multifactor Productivity And Idea Transmission Channels In The Malaysian Economy, Ester Shen Ai Chan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This paper examines the contribution of multifactor productivity (MFP) growth to output per worker growth in Malaysia from 1961-2000. MFP growth is found to contribute about 74 percent to output per worker growth from 1987-2000, but has only minimal or negative contribution to growth in the earlier years. This paper then attempts to explain why MFP growth has such a large contribution to output per worker growth in the period 1987-2000 by looking at international trade as channel of technology or idea transfer from the G5 countries into Malaysia. MFP grows because ideas from these advanced nations are transferred into …

Still Hungry (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

While I was conducting a research project on property rights in southern Ethiopia in 1994, I watched truck after truck roll into the community to distribute food aid. I asked a local farmer if the harvest had been bad. He assured me of his abundant harvest of tomatoes and onions—cash crops that he normally couldn't plant because he had to focus on feeding his family. However, he explained, with all the food aid they were now getting, he did not have to worry about feeding his family, so he could use his land to make some extra cash—and his family …

What Does It Mean, "Promoting Democratization"?, Sheila Carapico

Political Science Faculty Publications

Political speeches and even policy analysis from Washington, Ottawa, and the capitals of Europe in the past two decades about promoting democratization tend towards generalities and platitudes. This research asks what Western and international agencies actually do, on the ground in the Middle East, by way of fomenting democracy. Taking my inspiration from the sociologist Albert Hirschman who decades ago observed that projects are “privileged particles”[i] of socio-economic development assistance, I’ve collected well over twelve hundred examples.[ii] This summary table illustrates the aggregate finding that most projects cluster around electoral representation, legal or judicial development, and support for …