Product Description: Apocalyptic millennialism is embraced by the most powerful strands of evangelical Christianity. The followers of these groups believe in the physical return of Jesus to Earth in the Second Coming, the affirmation of a Rapture, a millennium of peace under the rule of Jesus and his saints, and, at last, final judgment and deep eternity...read more

Akenson's book parts company with the great bulk of recent emigration research by employing sharp transnational comparisons and by situating the two case studies in the larger context of the Great European Migration and of what determines the physics of a diaspora: no small matter, as the concept of diaspora has become central to twenty-first-century transnational studies. He argues (against the increasing refusal of mainstream historians to use empirical databases) that the history community still has a lot to learn from economic historians; and, simultaneously, that (despite the self-confidence of their proponents) narrow, economically based explanations of the Great European Migration leave out many of the most important aspects of the whole complex transaction. Akenson believes that culture and economic matters both count, and that leaving either one on the margins of explanation yields no valid explanation at all.

First published in 1975, Donald Akenson’s book was at the forefront of a radically new approach to the study of Irish educational history. Instead of investigating the evolution of the schools as an isolated process, he explores the complex interrelations of Irish education, institutions and society, treating the schools as cultural litmus paper. By presenting Ireland’s schools as a reflection of the society that produced them, Professor Akenson demonstrates that they are, in truth, "a mirror to the face of Kathleen ni Houlihan".

Most people are curious about their ancestry - in our age of information, genealogical research has become one of the most popular activities in the world and the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most important resources. Started in 1894, the Mormon genealogical project has grown to include 2 billion names, 2.4 million rolls of microfilm, and 278,000 books - making it the worlds largest collection of genealogical information. massive undertaking, in the process providing an insightful study of the Mormon scriptures and their implications for genealogical work. One of his central arguments is that there are four basic genealogical forms. The supporting evidence runs from the Solomon Islands to classical China to ancient Ireland. Highly significant on its own, it also provides the information needed to assess the Latter-day Saints' efforts to provide a single narrative of how humanity keeps track of itself. ethnographers - the use and limits of genetic data in genealogy, the reality of false-paternity as a widespread phenomenon in genealogical lines, the vexing matters of incest and cousin-marriage. Taking a unique perspective on a neglected topic, Akenson draws far-reaching conclusions about the stories cultures tell themselves. Some Family will be of interest not only to religious scholars but also to anyone who has ever used the Family History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to explore their ancestry.

Product Description: In Saint Saul Donald Harman Akenson shows that the answer to the most persistent question in Christianity - What do we know about the historical Jesus? - is best found in the writings of a caustic itinerant preacher named Saul. Saul, the author of the Epistles and known to Christians as Saint Paul, is the closest thing we have to a direct witness and our only opportunity to encounter Yeshua, as Jesus was known in his time, in something approaching the original...read more

Provides a detailed review of the ancient Hebrew scriptures and the Christian New Testament, while exploring the influences of the time in which they were written (view table of contents)

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Product Description: Montserrat, although part of England's empire, was settled largely by the Irish and provides an opportunity to view the interaction of Irish emigrants with English imperialism in a situation where the Irish were not a small minority among white settlers...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This pioneering study is the first to describe, on a world-wide basis, the complex phenomenon of the Irish diaspora. In a thought-provoking, accessible text Akenson examines population movements out of Ireland into Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Chosen as one of Library Journal's Best Books of 1992 "Superb scholarship and compelling writing."--Library Journal "Splendidly illuminating and enthrallingly readable."--Conor Cruise O'Brien Asserting that the dominant peoples of South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Israel have based their cultural identity on a belief in a covenant with an all-powerful God, Akenson vividly characterizes the effects of this conviction on each nation's history...read more

In a parish register in Ireland, Akenson discovered a record naming an Eliza McCormack White as John's sister. Employing imaginative reconstruction, he proposes that Eliza McCormack, a transvestite prostitute who was in central Canada at the time John White arrived on the Canadian scene, was actually John's sister. Further, he suggests that John White can be best understood by recognizing that he was in fact Eliza!

Product Description: The assumption that Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics are fundamentally different is central to modern Irish history. There are hundreds of books and thousands of articles that either presuppose the existence of Irish Catholic-Protestant differences or amplify the theme by illustration and anecdote...read more

Product Description: Professor Akenson proposes a radical revision in the way that we view that most fascinating of North american ethnic groups, the Irish.

Product Description: A Mirror to Kathleen's Face: Education in Independent Ireland, 1922-1960