Since people who work with clay come from diverse backgrounds and have diverse interests, there are probably as many concepts and views of clay as there are clay mineral species. It is not surprising, therefore, that clay scientists have varied trainings, including geology, mineralogy, chemistry, physics, and biology, and hold different perspectives. The multi-disciplinary nature of clay scienc…
In the early 1980s I was sitting in the coffee shop of the Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur, reflecting on the strange fact that Dutch troops had come ashore nearby, less than 80 years previously, on their way to perpetrate one of the more extraordinary massacres in the history of colonialism. I did not know that the Japanese had also landed in this same area in 1942, or that the Dutch had returned he…
My class was scheduled from ten until noon. Many students came late. Several arrived after 10:30. A few showed up closer to eleven. Two came after that. All of the latecomers wore the relaxed smiles I later came to enjoy. Each one greeted me, and although a few apologized briefly, none seemed terribly concerned about being late. They assumed that I understood. That Brazilians would arrive late …
Readers of this volume will be able to tell from the Introduction andnotes throughout the book how great a debt I owe to many distin-guished scholars past and present. Without them, this work would havebeen impossible. Here I want to express my gratitude to a number ofpeople who have influenced this project more directly. The book isdedicated to David R. Knechtges, wh…
A personal word: many years ago, when we were first developing the United StatesHolocaust Memorial Museum, we struggled with the issue of how to end the perma-nent exhibit. We had come up with an appropriate beginning that would serve thefunction of taking visitors off the National Mall, taking them back what was thenfifty years in time, moving them a continent away and introducing them to a Eu…
The one thing that I find most difficult is to write about myself. It is hard to understand why some people thirst for knowledge about me. It was never my intention to be anyone's hero. I am certainly no great example upon which to base one's life. I consider myself a very average normal kind of guy. I have some pretty good points; I have some human failings. I am proud of some of my achievemen…
What is it like to write poetry right now at this moment in world history? What is it unlike? Or, to avoid comparisons at all, what is poetry now? Fascists and an “alt-right” search for platforms, opposed but not often enough; global warming renders laugh-able our comfortable and anachronistic sense of cyclical change; secular stagnation mocks the entire program of austerity; a fra…
The web has been with us for more than a quarter of a century. It has become a daily and ubiquitous source of information in many peoples’ lives around the globe. But what does it tell us about historical and social change? For a researcher in the twenty-second century, it will seem unimaginable that someone studying the twenty-first c…
Polar bears are a charismatic Arctic species and the anticipated effects of climate change on their habitat have gained increasing international attention, making the species a high-profile conservation priority. Changes to the Arctic ecosystem will not only affect polar bears and their habitat, but also the livelihoods of Arctic communities. Hunting polar bears helps maintain cultural identit…