Historical patterns suggest that democratic governments, which often fight wars against authoritarian regimes, maintain peaceful relationships with other governments that uphold political freedoms and empower their civil societies—a concept known as “democratic peace.” Democratic Peace in Theory and Practice is a timely collection of essays by leading scholars that examines how democracies maintain relationships and how democracies are spread throughout the world.

Author Douglas R. Hoffman explores sacredness in houses of worship and examines the critical question of what architectural elements contribute to make sacred space. His underlying premise is that sacred space, while ephemeral, can be perceived and understood through a careful investigation of its architecture. After laying out the definition and architectural attributes of sacred space, Hoffman examines four contemporary American examples: the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Adath Jeshurun Synagogue in Minnetonka, Minnesota, the Islamic Cultural Center in New York City, and Riverbend Church in Austin, Texas.

After decades of controversy surrounding the May 4 commemoration, the University moved in a new direction, choosing to use the 30th anniversary as an opportunity to recognize the past and embrace the future. A major component of this was the establishment of an annual scholarly symposium to focus on the great issues of American democracy. The Boundaries of Freedom of Expression and Order in American Democracy is the product of the first symposium, which explored the limits of freedom of expression in American society as they apply to business, education, media, law, politics, the Internet, and other venues.

There is no shortage of literature addressing the workings, influence, and importance of NATO and the Warsaw Pact individually or how the two blocs faced off during the decades of the Cold War. However, little has been written about the various intrabloc tensions that plagued both alliances during the Cold War or about how those tensions affected the alliances’ operation. The essays in NATO and the Warsaw Pact seek to address that glaring gap in the historiography by utilizing a wide range of case studies to explore these often-significant tensions, dispelling in the process all thoughts that the alliances always operated smoothly and without internal dissent.

Professor Peter L. Hays, an experienced teacher who has taught The Sun Also Rises for more than forty years, has gathered together other seasoned instructors who teach Ernest Hemingway’s rich and complex novel. An informative collection of approaches to the presentation of The Sun Also Rises, this volume provides historic background and a glossary of arcane references, presents critical interpretations, and offers methodologies to inspire teachers of college and high school students.

A compilation of essays and related commentary delivered at the second annual Kent State University Symposium on Democracy, Media, Profit, and Politics recognizes and considers the fundamental differences that arise when the competitive forces of commerce clash with the demand for the open availability of information in a democratic society.

“Kate Hancock’s poems combine intellectual rigor with emotional recklessness like oil and water under special dispensation. This rare ability is a tell-tale sign of a true poet, and the reader who lets these poems have their sure way with him or her will not forget them.”—William Matthews

“The poetry, page after page, is of the kind that keeps the reader on the critical edge, both ecstatic and lucid, both active and illumined. . . . What began in the first part of the book with the evocations of a struggle to unclench a rock-locked fist’ is projected, in the end, on the geography of the continent itself, desolate yet lyrical. Nothing more exotic here than the beauty of utterance set free.”—Stavros Deligiorgis

“Reading The Auctioneer Bangs His Gavel, I had the sense of finding a poet I’d been looking for unawares: one who intertwines a survey of human sexuality (and gay sexuality at that) with theological questions; one who tackles ambitious poetic projects without sounding pretentious; one who writes fables using the ordinary materials of daily reality; one who balances the Jewish sources of the Western tradition with its Hellenic counterpart; one who knows how to be serious with the assistance of laughter; one who can tell a story and excerpt his own autobiography as a way of gaining larger perspectives on experience. ‘No things but in ideas,’ seems to be his aesthetic motto, and that has served him well in his goal—to declare that we are free to follow our natures in the pursuit of happiness.”—Alfred Corn

Weeks in This Country is a collection of poems concerned with place. From Turkey to rural Bohemia to Cape Cod, Griffith uses the rich imagery of her travels to evoke both the exotic and the personal. These are poems of observation and poems of meditation. Ultimately, they speak of the longing for connection—among individuals, between cultures, and across history.