Charles Swett (1828-1910) was a prosperous Vicksburg merchant and small plantation owner who was reluctantly drawn into secession but then rallied behind the Confederate cause, serving with distinction in the Confederate Army. After the war some of Swett's peers from Mississippi and other southern states invited him to explore the possibility of settling in British Honduras or the Republic of Honduras.Confederates in the Tropics uses Swett's 1868 travelogue to explore the motives of would-be Confederate migrants' fleeing defeat and Reconstruction in the United States South. The authors make a comparative analysis of Confederate communities in Latin America, and use Charles Swett's life to illustrate the travails and hopes of the period for both blacks and whites.Swett's diary is presented here in its entirety in a clear, accessible format, edited for contemporary readers. Swett's style, except for his passionate prefatory remarks, is a remarkably unsentimental, even scientific look at Belize and Honduras, more akin to a field report than a romantic travel account. In a final section, the authors suggest why the expatriate communities of white Southerners nearly always failed, and follow up on Swett's life in Mississippi in a way that sheds light on why disgruntled Confederates decided to remain in or eventually to return to the U.S. South.

This book explains the logic, language, and worldview of economic theory, including microeconomics, macroeconomics, and international topics. The book also has considerable descriptive material on the organization and performance of the U.S. economy. Explaining "economics"—an academic discipline—is not the same thing as explaining "the economy"—the processes of producing and distributing goods and services. The difference is crucial, because meaningful economic literacy requires the ability to think critically about the distinctive viewpoint proposed by academic economics, a viewpoint that has become dominant in contemporary politics and culture. A combination of economic theory and description is essential for understanding debates about current affairs, reading some professional economics literature, and reflecting on the usefulness and limits of the discipline of economics.These are ambitious goals for a short book, and while the book is serious, it is not grim—thus basic economics with an attitude.

Product Description: Latin America in the World Economy considers the dual aspect of Latin American development: how external factors (phases of world capitalism since Columbus) interweave with internal factors (Latin American culture, politics, and social groups)...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Central America sprang into the consciousness of the U.S. public in the late 1970s, propelled by the Nicaraguan revolution and the brutal civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador. The continuing debates over the nature of the conflicts and the role of U...read more

Product Description: Advocating modest educational reform, this book seeks to define more clearly the goals of higher education through a critical appraisal of its nature and promise. The four chapters in Part 1 provide an overview of the intellectual and curricular issues of liberal education, beginning with a view of academic disciplines as professional organizations and an account of the political and economic challenges that structure faced during the 1970s and 1980s...read more

Product Description: Format Hardcover Subject Literary Collections Publisher Greenwood Publishing Group Incorporated