Five Books to Look For in 2012

Five Books to Look For in 2012 I wanted to spend some time clearing my shelves of books that I had been meaning to read over the holidays, and I made some good progress.   As a reward, I decided to spend my New Year’s Eve going through the catalogs for Spring 2012 and taking a look at the titles that are slated to hit the shelves. Here are a few of the books that I think are worth waiting for in 2012. The book:   The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey The description:   The year is 1920.   A childless couple live on a homestead in the Alaskan wilderness, and their hard life is taking its toll on their marriage. Jack is overwhelmed by his work on the farm, and the loneliness is starting to get to Mabel. One day they find a young girl in the snow. They think she is the answer to their prayers.   Faina is not what she seems, however, and the truth changes everything. My thoughts:   What initially caught my attention several months ago was this statement by an early reviewer: “If Willa Cather and Gabriel Garcia Marquez had collaborated on a book, The Snow Child would be it.”   I love both of those authors, and the idea of the two styles coming together was just too tempting.   The book  trailer  just sealed the deal. Release Date: February 2012 (Reagan Arthur Books) The book:   Touch by Alexi Zentner The description:   The story focuses on Stephen, a man returning to his hometown of Sawgamet, a logging town in the Northern Canadian wilderness. It is the eve of his mother’s death, thirty years since his grandfather returned to the same town searching for his dead wife.   Now, it is Stephen who will have to come to terms with his own loss. My thoughts:   Technically, you don’t have to wait for this one. The book was released in hardcover in April, but for some reason it never got on my radar. I don’t know how that happened. It was this sentence from Susan Thurston’s Minneapolis Start-Tribune review that finally caught my attention: “Here the wilderness, of the woods as well as the soul, is a place with which to be reckoned, and the strongest of men and women can fashion from it a life of mythological proportion and beauty.” Release Date:   April 30, 2012 (Paperback W.W. Norton) The book:   Cubop City Blues by Pablo Medina The description:   The story takes place in Cupob City, a place that bears more than a passing resemblance to New York, and the reader is guided by The Storyteller. He is a young man, born nearly blind, cared for by a European housekeeper, and educated at home by means of the Encyclopedia Britannica, The Bible, and Arabian Nights. When he is 25, both parents are diagnosed with cancer. He becomes their care giver, and he passes the time by telling him stories inspired by his unusual education. My thoughts: Music does not speak to me in the same way that it does to many other people, but I love to read about the magic that music brings to other people.   I am intrigued by the character of The Storyteller, and I want to know what they mean when they say the story is “molded by the cadence of Afro-Cuban Jazz.” I definitely look forward to finding out. Release Date:   June 5, 2012 (Grove Press) The book: The Land at the End of the World by Antonio Lobo Autunes, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa The description:   The novel focuses on a Portuguese medic that is haunted by his memories of war. He shares his story with anyone who will listen, and, through his tale, paints “kaleidoscopic visions of a modern Portugal scarred by its Fascist past and its bloody colonial wars in Africa (Paris Review). My thoughts: This is another book that was actually released in hardcover last year and that I completely missed out on. It is a war novel told by a tormented medic. I am a big fan of M*A*S*H. They say that it follows “in the literary tradition of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez,” two of my all-time favorite authors.   This is a book that I may not be willing to wait for. I might just have to buy it now. Release date:   June 25, 2012 (Paperback W.W. Norton)   The book:   Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson The description:   The story takes place in an unspecified Middle Eastern location, where a young Arab-Indian hacker known only as Alif works hard to protect his various clients from surveillance.   His heart is broken, his security breached, and he must go into hiding.   While on the run, he finds a secret book of the jinn, A Thousand and One Days. The book and all the possibilities that it presents put Alif in an impossible situation. My thoughts:   As you may have noticed from my earlier picks, there are some “literary traditions” that I willingly follow, no matter where they might lead. This book falls into one of them. How could I not be interested when I saw this: “Alif the Unseen is a masterful debut novel, an enchanting, incredibly timely adventure tale worthy of Neil Gaiman.” Really? Sign me up. Release date: July 3, 2012 (Grove Press) __________________________ Cassandra Neace teaches college students how to write essays and blogs about books and book-related goodness at Indie Reader Houston. Follow her on  Twitter:  @CassandraNeace

Edmund Burkes Reflections on the Sublime - Literature Essay Samples

In his aesthetic treatise A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757), Edmund Burke (1729-1797) proposes his concept of the sublime. Although several eighteenth-century commentators had attempted the same thing, Burke’s Enquiry far exceeds the others in both scope and intellectual acuity. The sublime has a long history, dating back to the first century C.E. when the Greek critic Longinus first presented his concept of the sublime in his aesthetic treatise On Sublime (Peri hypsous). The root word is the Latin sublimis, an amalgamation of â€Å"sub† (up to) and â€Å"limen† (literally, the top piece of a door). According to Tom Furniss, the central task of Burke’s Enquiry is to develop a set of theoretical principles to demonstrate that the sublime and the beautiful are extremely repugnant to each other. This idea leads to the conventional distinction between pleasure and pain. Burke also makes another signif icant and controversial distinction between pleasure and delight; he characterizes the former as the enjoyment of some â€Å"positive† stimulus of the senses, while the latter for him emerges from the diminution of pain or danger. According to Burke, it is the idea of self-preservation that gives rise to delight, on the condition that the pain and danger inexorably associated with the former â€Å"do not press too nearly† but engage us only through the effects of empathy, curiosity, or imitation. The second division of passions those related to â€Å"the society of the sexes and general society† are accompanied by positive pleasure. This distinction between the passions of self-preservation and society is fundamental, for it leads him to define his principal aesthetic categories and the distinction between them: Then passions which belong to self-preservation turn on pain and danger they are delightful when we have an idea of pain and danger, without being act ually in such circumstances whatever excites this delight I call sublime.Beautyis a name I shall apply to all such qualities in things as induce in us a sense of affection and tenderness, or some other passions they most nearly resemble. The passion of love has its rise in positive pleasure.Moreover, for Burke the effect of the sublime in the highest degree is astonishment â€Å"that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror.† Sublimity, then, can be said to refer to a state in which the capacity to comprehend, to discern, and to articulate a thought or feeling is defeated. Nevertheless, through this very defeat, the mind gets a sensation for that which lies beyond thought and language. Moreover, Burke’s emphasis on the negative aspects of the sublime marks a significant departure from earlier commentators on the sublime. While for Addison the sublime is â€Å"liberating and exhilarating, a kind of happy aggrandizement,† Burke sees it as â€Å"alienating and diminishing.† For Burke, the source of the sublime is â€Å"whatever is in any sort terrible or conversant about terrible objects or operates in a manner analogous to terror that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.† The consideration of terror as the chief cause of the sublime reflects a move away from â€Å"literal† causes of heightened responses, such as qualities inherent in natural objects, toward the possibility that sublime effect may be produced through figuration. Moreover, as Philip Shaw suggests, the sentence itself becomes vague and unfathomable, which conveys the sense of sublimity through â€Å"a formal demonstration of the expressive uncertainty,† which in turn seems to suggest that the origins of the sublime lie in words rather than ideas. Although Burke does not admit this radical possibility of sublimity being merely an effect of language, he seems re peatedly on the verge it.As an empiricist, Burke asserts that our knowledge of the world is obtained exclusively from the evidence of the senses sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. While in this the influence of Baillie is palpable, the latter limited the importance of the senses to sight and hearing. According to Boulton, â€Å"despite the resulting absurdities, Burke at least tries to produce an aesthetic theory which accounts for the whole range of human responses.† Moreover, Burke’s argument makes it entirely secular, in contrast to his predecessors, as God is no longer needed to guarantee the genuineness of our experience. For instance, Burke sees the ocean as a source of terror not because it is an expression of God’s magnanimity, but because in contemplating a large body â€Å"the eye is struck by a vast number of distinct points.† With its capability stretched to the limit, the eye â€Å"vibrating in all its parts must approach to the natur e of what causes pain and consequently must produce an idea of the sublime.† Moreover, throughout the Enquiry, Burke’s distinction between the sublime and the beautiful is a gendered one; he associates the former with a vigorous masculine power and the latter as its inert feminine foil. This distinction, however, is not new to Burke, for in Longinus as well the sublime speech â€Å"ravishes† the listener. Whereas the sublime dwells on â€Å"large objects and terrible† and is related to the intense sensations of awe, pain, and terror, the beautiful focuses on â€Å"small ones and pleasing† and appeals mainly to the domestic affections of love, compassion, and pity. With the sublime â€Å"we submit to what we admire,† whereas in case of the beautiful â€Å"we love what submits to us.† Moreover, for Burke beauty is of a lower ethical order. Burke’s Freudian biographer Isaac Kramnick observes: In the Enquiry sublime virtues are embo died in the authority of the father, venerable and distant mothers and women in general are creatures of â€Å"compassion and amiable social virtues† the masculine realm is associated with pain and terror; the feminine is affect friendship and love associated with pleasure and compassion.Another critic, Ronald Paulson, goes to the extent of employing Freud’s formulation of the Oedipal Complex to Burke by citing a number of passages from the Enquiry, where the father and the son compete for the person of the mother. (Paulson uses Burke’s allusion to Milton’s portrayal of Satan in Book II of Paradise Lost, the description of Death in Book II itself, and so on, to prove his point). In this view, while the father (Satan) and the son (death) contend for power, the role of Sin â€Å"the mother-lover of Death† and the â€Å"daughter-lover of Satan† is limited to that of a mediator and a peacemaker, one who intervenes to pacify the sublime rage o f the masculine principles. However, a closer investigation reveals that the role of the mother in Burke is more ambivalent and complex than Paulson concedes; the feminine in Burke is â€Å"defined not so much by her passivity as by her capacity for material excess.† Recognizing that the â€Å"cause of beauty is some quality in bodies acting mechanically upon the human mind by then intervention of the sense,† Burke sustains a conventional difference between feminine matter and masculine intellect. While the latter’s dark and mysterious power instigates awe and wonder, the former merely entertains. Yet, as Shaw suggests, in practice the relation between beauty and convention is not as benign as it might at first appear, for there is a sense in which the repeated exposure to the sublime runs the risk of draining its intensity. Thus, the sublime’s capacity to provoke awe and fright is reduced by being subjected to convention. In that sense, the sublime alway s seems to be under threat, on the threshold of conversion into customary beauty.At times, however, such is the indefinite nature of Burke’s distinction that beauty â€Å"all too often presents a puzzling even excessive, face to the eye of the beholder.† Burke writes:Observe that part of a beautiful woman where she is perhaps the most beautiful, about the neck and breasts; the smoothness; the softness the variety of the surface, which is never for the smallest space the same; the deceitful maze, through which the unsteady eye slides giddily.Moreover, for Burke, beauty almost carries with it an idea of feebleness and imperfection and women, as agents of it, learn â€Å"to counterfeit weakness and even sickness.† It is apparent that, like the sublime, the beautiful is also endowed with a power, but it is of a devious, uncertain nature. While in the case of the former â€Å"we are forced to submit to what we admire,† in the latter case, â€Å"we are flatter ed into compliance.† Hence, although the sublime may induce fear and terror in its subjects, it at least has the virtue of not being deceptive. However, despite all of Burke’s negation of beauty, there becomes visible a constant threat from it to his privileged category of the sublime. As Shaw mentions, â€Å"the phallocentricism of his treatise is under constant threat from the excluded feminine other.† This becomes very evident in the attention Burke gives to the vitiating effects of beauty. Writing on â€Å"love,† Burke notes how the â€Å"body falls into a kind of stupor which is accompanied with an inward sense of melting and languor.† In opposition to the tension and the toil of the sublime is the unperturbed mediocrity of love, â€Å"a mode of the beautiful in which the rigours of the identity become softened, relaxed, enervated, dissolved, melted away by pleasure.† Thus, feminine stupefaction again gains an upper hand over the masculi ne authority of the sublime. Yet, Burke’s example from Homer’s Iliad shows his non-acceptance of the former assertion. According to him, because Homer wants to excite our compassion for the Trojans, he gives more amiable and social virtues to them than he does to the Greeks, thereby attempting to raise pity for the former. On the other hand, the Greeks are made superior in the military and political virtues, which make them admired and revered but not loveable. So, although pity might be extended to the vanquished, it is the victors who are venerated. For Burke, therefore, the problem with love is that it encourages identification with the weak, whereas sublime admiration maintains the noble virtues of valor and honor. The sublime, moreover, â€Å"acts as the antidote to the dissolution produced by beautiful. All its straining follows the dictates of the work ethic. The best remedy for these evils (produced by the beautiful) is exercise or labour.† His text seem s to be at an interminable war with female indolence. That society should be allied with domestic or feminine qualities and self-preservation with masculine values of heroic exemption presents Burke with a fundamental problem, for it implies that everyday life is based on deception. As Fergusson comments: For while tyrants are sublime in the Enquiry, only the beautiful, with its commitment to companionable resemblance between humans, disguises the disequilibrium of power so effectively that we all, like Adam, become accomplices to our own deaths. Although the sublime masters us while we are superior to the power of the beautiful, the Enquiry suggests that we invariably misconstrue those power relationships by failing to recognize that what we term the weaker has greater sway over us than the sublime with its palpably awesome force.Burke’s aesthetic theories can be connected to his political doctrines. As Neal Wood suggests, â€Å"Burke’s two basic aesthetic categories , the Sublime and the Beautiful, inform and shape several of his fundamental political ideas.† That Burke’s most significant political treatise, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) was influenced by his earlier aesthetic treatise can be seen from his 1789 letter to Lord Charlemont. For him the revolution is an event of sublime theatricality â€Å"a wonderful spectacle an enigmatic thing† which leaves those who gaze at it paralyzed with â€Å"astonishment.† Burke also realizes the threat, however: â€Å"the old Parisian ferocity has broken out in a shocking manner,† not only to France, but to England as well. As Shaw mentions, â€Å"the possibility that such ferocity might exceed its national boundary, infecting our English home with the germ of insurrectionary violence, provides a disturbing counterpoint to the overarching attempt at contemplative detachment.† In the Enquiry too, the distinction between theatrical and actual displ ay of violence was touched upon, and although Burke accords primacy to the latter, the response educed in the mind of the spectators is the same in both cases.In the Reflections, Burke still considers the Revolution to be â€Å"astonishing and wonderful,† but here it is shown to be brought about by â€Å"means,† â€Å"modes,† and â€Å"instruments that are the most contemptible,† thereby linking the sublime and the ridiculous. Tom Furniss and Terry Eagleton have argued that it is possible to see in both Enquiry and Reflections allegories for the emergence and persistence of modern bourgeois identity. As Shaw argues â€Å"the Reflections sets out to achieve a reclamation of the Sublime, based on a distinction between the pernicious inflation of revolutionary discourse and the ‘natural’ hierarchy embedded in the British constitution.† For Burke, â€Å"the spirit of freedom, leading in France to misrule and excesses, is tempered (in Bri tain) by an awful gravity.† In contrast to the French â€Å"citizen† who bases his enthusiasm on the false glower of revolutionary fervor, the British â€Å"subject† is bound by indestructible ties to ancient and noble traditions. In other words, the British constitution is sublime because it maintains â€Å"awe, reverence and respect† in its subjects, while the French system is insidious because it encourages a â€Å"multitude† to revolutionary intemperance.Burke raises important questions in his account of the sublime about the relationship between mind and matter, asking whether the sublime is a quality that exists in objects of natural magnificence, whether it has wholly subjective origins, or whether it is produced by the interaction of the two. Another radical possibility that he raises is whether it is merely an effect of language. As Peter De Bolla argues, while Burke makes no overt claims for the discursive origins of the sublime, both the Enquiry and the Reflections operate beyond the conscious control of the author to suggest this as a possibility. It is true that greatness of dimension had been regarded as a source of sublimity from Longinus onward; Addison, Hume, and others had attempted a psychological explanation, but it was only Burke who attempted a physiological one. According to Boulton, although the association of the sublime with terror had been found in Dennis and slightly in Smith’s comments on Longinus, as a whole his theory had no precedent. Despite the fact that Burke’s treatment of the sublime differs in some ways dramatically from his British contemporaries, it has come to represent eighteenth-century British thought and is often compared to the Kantian sublime. Yet, as Vanessa Ryan argues, â€Å"even at the point where the British tradition comes closest to the Kantian, namely, in the writings of Burke, it also most clearly marks its distance from it.† The essential difference between Burke and Kant is that while Kant’s transcendent sublime lets us â€Å"recognize our limitlessness; Burke’s physiological sublime presents us with our limitedness.†Works ConsultedArbor, Ann. The Philosophy of Edmund Burke. Michigan, 1960.Ashfield, A. and Peter de Bolla (Eds). The Sublime: A Reader in Eighteenth-Century Aesthetic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, Editor James T. Boulton. London: Routledge, 2008. Burke, Edmund. The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke, Vol. I. (of 12). (http://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/0/4/15043/).Cobban, Alfred. Edmund Burke and the Revolt Against the Eighteenth Century. George Allen and Unwin Limited, London, 1960-2nd edition.Eagleton, Terry. â€Å"Aesthetics and Politics in Edmund Burke† (Source: History Workshop, No. 28 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 53-62, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4288924 ).Furniss, T. Edmund Burke’s Aesthetic Ideology: Language, Gender and Political Economy in Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.Kramnick, Isaac. The Rage of Edmund Burke: Portrait of an Ambivalent Conservative. New York: Basic Books, 1977.Milton, John. Paradise Lost, Editor Gordon Teskey. New York and London, W. W. Norton and Company, 2005.Monk, Ian H. (ed.) Edmund Burke. Ashgate, 2009.Monk, S. H. The Sublime: A Study in Critical Theories in 18th-Century England. New York: Modern Languages Association, 1960.Quinton, Anthony: â€Å"Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful† (Source: Philosophy, Vol. 36, No. 136 (Jan., 1961), pp. 71-73, Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Institute of Philosophy, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3748935).Ryan, Vanessa L.: â€Å"The Physiological Sublime: Burke’s Critique of Reason† (Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Apr., 2001), pp. 265-279, Published by: Uni versity of Pennsylvania Press, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3654358).Shaw, Philip. The Sublime. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. Swann, Karen: â€Å"The Sublime and the Vulgar† (Source: College English, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Jan., 1990), pp. 7-20, Published by: National Council of Teachers of English, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/377403). Wark, R. R.: â€Å"A Note on James Barry and Edmund Burke† (Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 17, No. 3/4 (1954), pp. 382-384, Published by: The Warburg Institute, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750333).

Battle of Saratoga in the American Revolution

The Battle of Saratoga was fought September 19 and October 7, 1777, during the American Revolution (1775-1783). In the spring of 1777, Major General John Burgoyne proposed a plan for defeating the Americans. Believing that New England was the seat of the rebellion, he proposed cutting the region off from the other colonies by moving down the Hudson River corridor while a second force, led by Colonel Barry St. Leger, advanced east from Lake Ontario. Meeting at Albany, they would press down the Hudson, while General William Howes army advanced north from New York. British Plans An attempt to capture Albany from the north had been attempted the previous year, but the British commander, Sir Guy Carleton, had elected to withdraw after the Battle of Valcour Island (October 11) citing the lateness of the season. On February 28, 1777, Burgoyne presented his plan to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord George Germain. Reviewing the documents, he granted Burgoyne permission to move forward and appointed him to lead the army that would invade from Canada. Germain did so having already approved a plan from Howe that called for the British army in New York City to advance against the American capital at Philadelphia. Â   It is unclear whether Burgoyne was aware of Howes intentions to attack Philadelphia before he left Britain. Though Howe was later informed that he should support Burgoynes advance, he was not specifically told what this should entail. Additionally, Howes seniority precluded Burgoyne from issuing him orders. Writing in May, Germain told Howe that he expected the Philadelphia campaign to be concluded in time to assist Burgoyne, but his letter contained no specific orders. Burgoyne Advances Moving forward that summer, Burgoynes advance initially met with success as Fort Ticonderoga was captured and Major General Arthur St. Clairs command forced to retreat. Pursuing the Americans, his men won a victory at the Battle of Hubbardton on July 7. Pressing down from Lake Champlain, the British advance was slow as the Americans diligently worked to block the roads south. The British plan began to unravel in quick succession as Burgoyne became plagued by supply issues. To help remedy this issue, he dispatched a column led by Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum to raid Vermont for supplies. This force encountered American forces led by Brigadier General John Stark on August 16. In the resulting Battle of Bennington, Baum was killed and his predominantly Hessian command suffered over fifty percent casualties. The loss resulted in the desertion of many of Burgoynes Native American allies. Burgoynes situation was further worsened by news that St. Leger had turned back and that Howe had left New York to begin a campaign against Philadelphia. Alone and with his supply situation worsening, he elected to move south in an effort to take Albany before winter. Opposing his advance was an American army under the command of Major General Horatio Gates. Appointed to the position on August 19, Gates inherited an army that was rapidly growing due to the success at Bennington, outrage over the slaying of Jane McCrea by Burgoynes Native Americans, and the arrival of militia units. Gates army also benefited from General George Washingtons earlier decision to send north his best field commander, Major General Benedict Arnold, and Colonel Daniel Morgans rifle corps. Armies Commanders Americans Major General Horatio GatesMajor General Benedict ArnoldColonel Daniel Morgan9,000 growing to 15,000 men British Major General John Burgoyne7,200 declining to 6,600 men Battle of Freemans Farm On September 7, Gates moved north from Stillwater and occupied a strong position atop Bemis Heights, approximately ten miles south of Saratoga. Along the heights, elaborate fortifications were constructed under the eye of engineer Thaddeus Kosciusko which commanded the river and the road to Albany. In the American camp, tensions festered as the relationship between Gates and Arnold soured. Despite this, Arnold was given command of the left wing of the army and the responsibility for preventing the capture of heights to the west which dominated the Bemis position. Crossing the Hudson north of Saratoga between September 13-15, Burgoyne advanced on the Americans. Hampered by American efforts to block the road, heavy woods, and broken terrain, Burgoyne was not in position to attack until September 19. Seeking to take the heights to the west, he devised a three-prong attack. While Baron Riedesel advanced with a mixed British-Hessian force along the river, Burgoyne and Brigadier General James Hamilton would move inland before turning south to attack Bemis Heights. The third column under Brigadier General Simon Fraser would move further inland and work to turn the American left. Arnold and Morgan Attack Aware of British intentions, Arnold lobbied Gates to attack while the British were marching through the woods. Though preferring to sit and wait, Gates finally relented and permitted Arnold to advance Morgans riflemen along with some light infantry. He also stated that if the situation required, Arnold could involve more of his command. Moving forward to an open field on the farm of Loyalist John Freeman, Morgans men soon sighted the lead elements of Hamiltons column. Opening fire, they targeted the British officers before advancing. Driving back the lead company, Morgan was forced to retreat into the woods when Frasers men appeared on his left. With Morgan under pressure, Arnold funneled additional forces into the fight. Through the afternoon intense fighting raged around the farm with Morgans riflemen decimating the British artillery. Sensing an opportunity to crush Burgoyne, Arnold requested additional troops from Gates but was refused and issued orders to fall back. Ignoring these, he continued the fight. Hearing the battle along the river, Riedesel turned inland with most of his command. Appearing on the American right, Riedesels men rescued the situation and opened a heavy fire. Under pressure and with the sun setting, the Americans withdrew back to Bemis Heights. Though a tactical victory, Burgoyne suffered over 600 casualties as opposed to around 300 for the Americans. Consolidating his position, Burgoyne put off further attacks in the hope that Major General Sir Henry Clinton could provide assistance from New York City. While Clinton did raid up the Hudson in early October, he was not able to provide aid. In the American camp, the situation between the commanders reached a crisis when Gates did not mention Arnold in his report to Congress regarding the Freemans Farm battle. Devolving into a shouting match, Gates relieved Arnold and gave his command to Major General Benjamin Lincoln. Though granted a transfer back to Washingtons army, Arnold remained as more and more men arrived in camp. Battle of Bemis Heights Concluding the Clinton was not coming and with his supply situation critical Burgoyne called a council of war. Though Fraser and Riedesel advocated retreat, Burgoyne refused and they agreed instead upon a reconnaissance in force against the American left on October 7. Led by Fraser, this force numbered around 1,500 men and advanced from Freeman Farm to the Barber Wheatfield. Here it encountered Morgan as well as the brigades of Brigadier Generals Enoch Poor and Ebenezer Learned. While Morgan attacked the light infantry on Frasers right, Poor shattered the grenadiers on the left. Hearing the fighting, Arnold dashed from his tent and took de facto command. With his line collapsing, Fraser tried to rally his men but was shot and killed. Beaten, the British fell back to the Balcarres Redoubt at Freemans Farm and Breymanns Redoubt slightly to the northwest. Attacking Balcarres, Arnold was initially repulsed, but worked men around the flank and took it from behind. Organizing an attack on Breymanns, Arnold was shot in the leg. The redoubt subsequently fell to American assaults. In the fighting, Burgoyne lost another 600 men, while American losses were only around 150. Gates remained in camp for the duration of the battle. Aftermath The next evening, Burgoyne began withdrawing north. Halting at Saratoga and with his supplies exhausted, he called a council of war. While his officers favored fighting their way north, Burgoyne ultimately decided to open surrender negotiations with Gates. Though he initially demanded an unconditional surrender, Gates agreed to a treaty of convention whereby Burgoynes men would be taken to Boston as prisoners and permitted to return to England on the condition that they not fight in North America again. On October 17, Burgoyne surrendered his remaining 5,791 men. The turning point of the war, the victory at Saratoga proved key in securing a treaty of alliance with France.

Essay on Homeland Security is More Important than Civil...

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the American citizens the due process of law, which guarantees the defendants the right to fundamental fairness and the expectation of fair trails, fair hearings, and similar procedural safeguards, and the Fourteenth Amendment affirms that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, and property without the due process of law (Siegel 160). In the article, â€Å"Can the CIA Put a U.S. Born al Qaeda Figure on its Kill List?† the American Civil Liberties Union and Central Intelligence Agency debate whether the United States can target one of its citizens with armed drones without the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution. According to The Washington Times,†¦show more content†¦Therefore, by killing Anwar al-Awlaki, the government protected many innocent American’s lives from future terrorist attacks. On one hand, American Civil Liberties Union questions if the attack of Anwar al Awlaki is legal since government of the Unites States did not charge him with any crimes, or he did not receive a fair trial. In the article, â€Å"Can the CIA Put a U.S. Born al Qaeda Figure on its Kill List?† the American Civil Liberties Union states that sweeping authority to impose extrajudicial death sentences violates the Constitution and international law (Kingsbury 1). Clearly, Civil Libertarians are challenging President Obama’s order to assassinate a citizen of the United States without the due process of the Fifth Amendment. In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union is in conflict with Central Intelligence Agency because its members believe that Central Intelligence Agency is violating constitutional and international laws by killing a suspected American citizen terrorist without the due process of the Fifth Amendment. Therefore, the American Civil Liberties Union files a lawsuit on August 3rd, 2010 on behalf of Awlaki’s father, Nasser al Awlaki, challenging the government’s authority to put Anwar al- Awlaki on a terrorist kill list (Gentile 2). In the magazine article, â€Å"ACLU Criticize Killing of Anwar-Awlaki, a United States Citizen, Calling it a Dangerous Precedent,† Sal Gentile states that the American Civil LibertiesShow MoreRelated9/11...a Turning Point1408 Words   |  6 Pagesinnocence. As a result of 9/11 many civil liberties were taken away, security was heightened, and there have been numerous effects on Americans. Although the attack happened on American soil , it can really be characterized as an attack on civilization itself, because people from more than 80 nationalities perished on that day (Hitchens). An American’s civil liberties are among some of the most important rights awarded to a citizen. 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Gatsby, Nick, Tom, and Daisy in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway is the most important person in the novel and plays a major role as well. Nick is the character that knows everything about everyone. He knows Gatsby more than anyone else does. He is said to be the reader’s access to Gatsby’s life. However, he is clueless as to the lies and rumors going around about Gatsby and some of the other things that are going on (Doreski). Nick tries to stay out of other people’s business but is always finding himself caught in the middle of it anyway (Hermanson). Nick is not the perfect and innocent character in this book. He is a manipulator and excellent liar (â€Å"Great†, Scott). Nick thinks that he is above every characters wrongdoing. For example, he feels he is superior to Tom’s infidelities, Jordan Baker’s lies, and Gatsby’s criminal acts. However, little does he know he takes part in some of those wrongdoings (Hays). Nick can also be confusing at times. There are moments in the book whe re Nick thinks Gatsby has something to hide and that Gatsby is mysterious. Then, there are other times where Nick believes that Gatsby is the only honest character (Roulston and Roulston). Therefore, one can conclude that Nick is not a very stable individual. He has switched up on the reader. He acts and says one thing but then later his actions are opposite. Nick is the one character that is capable of understanding life as Gatsby views it. The other characters just live the life that Gatsby sees. This is why Nick only likes Gatsby and does notShow MoreRelatedAffairs, Wealth, and Murder in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby1545 Words   |  7 PagesIn The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald tells about affairs, describes wealth, and tells about murder. There are three love affairs. One is Gatsby and Daisy and the other is Tom and Myrtle. Daisy cheats on Tom with Gatsby, Tom cheats on Daisy with Myrtle, and Myrtle cheats on her husband with Tom. 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Essay on The Biography of Albert Einstein - 2099 Words

The Biography of Albert Einstein Born in 1879, Albert Einstein is known today for his incredible mathematical ability and†¦ well, his wild hair. But more important than the physical attributes of his cranium, is the fantastic information which it provided. He will probably always be remembered as the greatest mathematical genius of the modern world. Honors he has received for his works include the Nobel Prize, which he was awarded in 1921, the Royal Society Copley Medal, which he was awarded in 1925, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1921, and he became an AMS Gibbs Lecturer in 1934. He also was a very vocal advocate against nuclear weapons, and spoke out for international peace.†¦show more content†¦An avid learner, especially in the area of math, he became intrigued with theoretical mathematics at an early age. At the age of 12, I experienced a wonder in a booklet dealing with Euclidean plane geometry, which came into my hands at the beginning of a school year. Here were assertion s, as for example the intersection of the three altitudes of a triangle in one point, which -- though by no means evident -- could nevertheless be proved with such certainty that any doubt appeared to be out of the question. This lucidity and certainty made an indescribable impression on me. Although he loved to learn, he hated high school, mostly because of the necessity to obey arbitrary orders given by authority. A teacher once suggested Einstein leave school, since his very presence destroyed the other students respect for the teacher. He later did, quitting school at midterm to join his parents in Italy, who had moved to Milan in 1894, and at that time he had remained in Munich to finish his schooling, he was fifteen when he returned to his parents. In 1896 Einstein renounced German citizenship and was stateless until he applied for Swiss citizenship, where he was attending school in Aarau, in 1899, and was granted it in 1901. 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The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti took place during the height of the Red Scare and the massive migration of immigrants to the United States, where a substantial percentage of immigrants were from Italy. With the largeRead MoreAlbert Enstein1246 Words   |  5 PagesIntellectual Property †¢ History Bios †¢ †¢ Share †¢ Print Ads:    †¢ Albert Einstein    †¢ Inventors Help    †¢ Einstein Quotes    †¢ Patent Invention Idea    †¢ Example of Biography Albert Einstein - Biography [pic] By  Mary Bellis Photo: Albert Einstein Albert Einstein was born in Germany in 1879. He enjoyed classical music and played the violin. One story Einstein liked to tell about his childhood was of a wonder he saw when he was four or five yearsRead MoreThe Life Of Albert Einstein923 Words   |  4 Pages 2015 5th Period The Life of Albert Einstein Albert Einstein, the son of Hermann and Pauline Einstein, was born on March 14, 1879, at Ulm, in Wurttemberg, Germany. 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TBL approach Free Essays

Three stages could be involved in this cycle of continuous improvement, which tend to build on each others over time. These are Compliance: Many enterprises will decide to adopt the TUB approach in order to simply comply with the buyers’ expectations or local regulations, with aim of retaining their â€Å"license to operate† in the face of buyers’ demands or government inspections. Efficiency: With time or sometimes in parallel with the pressures to comply enterprises will come under pressure to improve performance and they will use this pressure, handled through a TUB approach, as a driver for cost savings, productivity improvements and quality enhancements focusing on process efficiency and resource utilization. We will write a custom essay sample on TBL approach or any similar topic only for you Order Now This option offers a mix of cost saving and productivity improvements. Differentiation: Later on the enterprises involved for sometime In the TUB process thought of using the TUB approach strategically, aiming at strengthening their competitive position by moving them from being â€Å"price takers† to being â€Å"price setters† Criteria for selection of industries: The enterprises are Seems (Small and Medium scale Enterprises) Significant direct or indirect exporter The existence of at least some management capacity and the availability of an information system Significant level of Interests shown by person within the enterprise with a track record of leadership or Innovation and the authority(CEO/ Chairman/Plant manager) to sustain an Initiative such as TUB In the face of competing pressures A clear potential for Improvement Likelihood of effect arising from changes at the selected enterprise Basic stages of any sustained TUB process: The basic stages of any sustained TUB process Includes Enrolment: Being prepared for to â€Å"sign up† for the program In the beginning Application: Being prepared to commit company’s resources especially staff time to Investigating company’s performance Implementation: Being prepared to Invest resources In Implementing options arising from the TUB process Maintenance: Being prepared to sustain over the long term, the Minimal gains made as a result of Implementing Improved options CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT By businesswoman Later on the enterprises involved for sometime in the TUB process thought of information system Significant level of interests shown by person within the enterprise with a track record of leadership or innovation and the authority(CEO/ Chairman/Plant manager) to sustain an initiative such as TUB in the face of competing pressures A clear potential for improvement The basic stages of any sustained TUB process includes Enrolment: Being prepared for to â€Å"sign up† for the program in the beginning Applicat ion: investigating company’s performance Implementation: Being prepared to invest resources in implementing options arising from the TUB Being prepared to sustain over the long term, the initial gains made as a result of implementing improved options How to cite TBL approach, Papers