American Almanac Research Articles

A Contrastive Study of Chinese and American Almanacs: From the Perspective of Contrastive Linguistics and Systemic-functional Linguistics

An almanac is a book published annually giving statistical information on various subjects. Underpinned by the theories of CL and SFL, this study adopts both qualitative and quantitative analysis with a contrastive approach to full or sample texts, on the level of lexicogrammar, three metafunctions and genre stratum respectively, to see to what extent Chinese and American local comprehensive almanacs are similar or different in dealing with equivalent information through the same genre. Based upon the empirical data we have collected of local materials and copies of American almanacs, it is found that the genre of almanac, as a kind of reference book, conditions the ideational metafunction in fundamental objectivity, the interpersonal metafunction in objectivity and straightness, and certain lexicogrammatical features in objectivity, detachment, result-orientation, economy and accuracy. Combining the three lines of inquiry, we can see that genre is positioned as an abstract level of analysis coordinating field, tenor and mode (known collectively as register), and register is realized in turn through language (discourse semantics, lexicogrammar, etc). Both show the linguistic features of almanac as detached, result-oriented, economical and accurate. However, due to the linguistic conventions, social and cultural differences, Chinese and American almanacs have rather observable distinctions in generic structure. It is believed that the present study can bridge the gap between linguistics and almanacs, and pave a new way for the development of both CL and SFL, and almanac studies.

Native American Almanac: More Than 5,000 Years of the Cultures and Histories of Indigenous People Yvonne Wakim Dennis, Arlene Hirschfelder, and Shannon Rothenberger Flynnby

Reviewed by: Native American Almanac: More Than 5,000 Years of the Cultures and Histories of Indigenous People Yvonne Wakim Dennis, Arlene Hirschfelder, and Shannon Rothenberger Flynnby Cameron Shriver Native American Almanac: More Than 5,000 Years of the Cultures and Histories of Indigenous People. By Yvonne Wakim Dennis, Arlene Hirschfelder, and Shannon Rothenberger Flynn. Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press, 2016. vi + 625 pp. Illustrations, index. $24.95 paper. In this reference work, the authors “have tried to present a historical overview of Native communities in what is now the United States” (ix). The book is intended for a lay audience, and to that end Dennis, Hirschfelder, and Flynn have broken their subject into regional chapters with many concise sections. For example, the Northern Plains chapter has information on “From the Woodlands to the Plains,” “Traditional Life” (Cultural Expressions, Drama, Literature, Technology, Games and Sports), “Colonial History,” “Selling Energy,” “Contemporary Concerns” (in which the Black Hills, Cobell Settlement, and Keystone XL Pipeline garner abstracts), and summaries of many tribes in the region. Each regional chapter includes a valuable series of short biographies of important people, arranged chronologically. These describe both a long past and a vibrant present, incorporating recent figures such as Gyasi Ross and Shoni Schimmel. As a single volume designed for the uninitiated, the book is well illustrated and has a bounty of biographical information. Additionally, it introduces a broad array of current Indian Country issues. Unfortunately, it also has too many errors of fact. Despite the authors’ assertion, the French did develop “permanent settlements in the interior” of Canada (4). The 1795 Treaty of Greenville did not relinquish “all of present-day Ohio” (10). The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma was not terminated in 1897, nor did they have a “longhouse culture” that was revitalized by oil revenues (242–43). While the community that became the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma was forcibly removed from Ohio to Oklahoma in 1832, it was a fraction of the 50,000 the authors claim (245). Matters of emphasis compound these missteps. For example, the authors narrate the Mexican-American War (1846–48) without discussing the many Native people vying for power in the Southern Plains. This is a lost opportunity because recent historical work has illuminated the ways in which Indian polities—Comanches, Apaches, and others—were central to the causes and course of that conflict. The short section on colonial history of the Northern Plains is essentially a description of nineteenth-century epidemics among the Mandan. What of Lakota [End Page 242] expansion? The authors argue that most modern Northern Plains nations were pushed from the east by European expansion and Native forces. Yet whether Algonquian and Sioux communities were pushed or pulled to the Northern Plains is disputed. Native American Almanac is surefooted in its goal of providing an overview of modern topics of interest for those without prior knowledge. Readers familiar with Native American scholarship may prefer the encyclopedic Handbook of North American Indians series, including its two-volume “Plains” edition edited by Raymond DeMallie. The authors of Native American Almanac likewise employ a regional approach and, also like the Handbook, include a history of Indian-white relations. For those interested in specific events, communities, or historical processes, I recommend looking elsewhere. Cameron Shriver Postdoctoral Research Associate Miami Tribe of Oklahoma Copyright © 2017 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Book Review: Native American Almanac: More than 50,000 Years of the Cultures and Histories of Indigenous Peoples

The authors emphasize early what Native American Almanac is not: an almanac, an encyclopedia, nor a scholarly work, among other things. It is described as a well-researched “historical overview of Native communities in what is now the United States” (ix). Despite the title, it is heavily focused on the post-contact period. The main arrangement is by geographical region, with an overview chapter and one discussing urban settings. Each chapter is introduced by a regional history, followed by discussion of tribes, their histories, and other information.

The American Almanac, smallpox in Santiago in 1872 and the isolations hospitals

Due to the smallpox epidemic in Santiago in 1872, a Commission or Central Board of isolation hospitals was created. These institutions were endowed with the necessary personnel to receive and assist the sick, highlighting the work of medical students, interns at these hospitals. The total number of patients treated in the infirmaries of Santiago reached 6,782, with a fatality rate of 3,073 (45.3%).

A Look at the American Almanac

A Look at the American Almanac

Michael W. Suleiman (1934-2010)

For all of us who knew Michael Suleiman over many years, news of his illness and untimely death came as both a shock and cause of enormous sadness. Michael's accomplishments in the academic world are simply astonishing. A quiet and unassuming man Michael did perhaps more than any other single person to establish and champion the study of Arab Americans. At the same time, he was an unfailing spokesperson for the rights of the Palestinians. Michael balanced academic rigor with a meticulous scholarship that is apparent in everything he wrote, edited and in any conference he organized.Michael was born in Tiberias into a poor family (his father was a mason) of two brothers and four sisters. When the Nakba of 1947/48 forced the family out of Palestine they became refugees in Jordan where a scholarship enabled Michael to complete his secondary schooling at the Anglican sponsored Bishop's School in Amman. After graduation he taught at the school for two years before moving to England to teach science and math at Abbotsholme. Although he was accepted by both Oxford and Cambridge his admission was deferred owing to the large number of returning veterans from World War II who were also pressing for admission. Through the sponsorship of a Presbyterian minister, Reverend Page, Michael was able to come to the United States to attend Bradley University on a scholarship attained after he convinced the college director of his determination, work experience, and abilities. He earned graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin where he completed his MS ( 1 962) and PhD degree ( 1 965) in Political Science and where he met and married his beloved wife Penny. Married for 47 years, Michael and Penny had two children, a daughter Suad and son Gibran.In 1965 Michael joined the faculty of political science at Kansas State University (KSU) in Manhattan, Kansas where he served as head of the department from 1975 to 1982. In 1 972 he was awarded a university Distinguished Professorship. Michael held a wide range of advisory positions including among others, the Dean's Advisory Committee, African Area Studies Center Planning Committee, and the KSU Task Force on Financing the Library for the 21st Century. Over the course of his career, Michael was also a visiting scholar at the University of California, University of London, and a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University.Michael was awarded no fewer than five Fulbright-Hays Fellowships, in addition to receiving research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Institute of Maghribi Studies, and a Ford Faculty Research Fellowship among others. Michael was also the recipient of a number of operating grants to arrange conferences, lecture series, and concerts.As a recognized scholar in Middle East studies, Michael was asked to consult by a wide range of scholarly journals and presses including, to name just a few, the American Journal of Political Science, Arab Studies Quarterly, Arab American Almanac, Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, Pluto Press, and many university presses. His work as an evaluator for grant proposals was highly valued by Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), the League of Arab States, and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Media organizations as diverse as ABC Nightline, Associated Press, PBS (McNeil/Lehrer News Hour), NPR, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and the New York Times interviewed and consulted with Michael on developments in the Arab world and about Arab Americans. As recognition of his achievements he is included in many directories of leading scholars and Arab Americans including Who 's Who in America, International Who 's Who of the Arab World, 2000 Prominent Arabs of the 20th Century.As an active member of MESA, Michael frequently presented papers and chaired panels at the annual conventions and rendered valuable advice to the Ethics Committee during the 1990s. …

African American almanac: 400 years of triumph, courage and excellence

The most complete and affordable single-volume reference of African American culture available today, this almanac is a unique and valuable resource devoted to illustrating and demystifying the moving, difficult, and often lost history of black life in America. A legacy of pride, struggle, and triumph spanning more than 400 years is presented through a fascinating mix of biographies - including 500 influential figures - little-known or misunderstood historical facts, enlightening essays on significant legislation and movements, and 150 rare photographs and illustrations. Covering events surrounding the civil rights movement; African American literature, art, and music; religion within the black community; and, advances in science and medicine, this reference connects history to the issues currently facing the African American community and provides a range of information on society and culture.

"Astrology's from Heaven not from Hell": The Religious Significance of Early American Almanacs

Although the astrological content of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century almanacs has most often been characterized as offering an "occult" spirituality, this essay argues that almanac astrology could not have been practiced and would not have been popular without its connection to mainstream Protestantism. Almanac-makers, like natural philosophers, viewed the cosmos as a legible text through which God communicated. Astrology, a clearly organized system for explaining occurrences in the natural world, was a means toward that end. As used by almanac-makers, it did nothing to challenge and everything to promote British America's prevailing religious sensibility. For some almanac-makers, this was a sincere and intentional effort to instruct readers in spiritual truth; for others, it was merely a successful attempt to meet readers' expectations. Influenced by European practice, the American market for books, and an interplay between producers and consumers, the astrology at the center of early America's most widespread form of print was, as one almanac-maker put it, "a handmaid fit for bless'd theology."

Popular print and popular medicine: almanacs and health advice in early America

In this innovative study of the relationship between popular print and popular attitudes toward the body, health, and disease in antebellum America, Thomas A. Horrocks focuses our attention on a publication long neglected by scholars - the almanac. Approaching his subject as both a historian of the book and a historian of medicine, Horrocks contends that the almanac, the most popular secular publication in America from the late eighteenth century to the first quarter of the nineteenth, both shaped and was shaped by early Americans' beliefs and practices pertaining to health and medicine.Analyzing the astrological, therapeutic, and regimen advice offered in American almanacs over two centuries, and comparing it with similar advice offered in other genres of popular print of the period, Horrocks effectively demonstrates that the almanac was a leading source of health information in America prior to the Civil War. He contends that the almanac was an integral component of a complicated, fragmented, semi-vernacular health literature of the period, and that the genre played a leading role in disseminating astrological health advice as well as shaping contemporary and future perceptions of astrology.In terms of therapeutic and regimen advice, Horrocks asserts that the almanac performed a complementary role, confirming and reinforcing traditional beliefs and practices. By analyzing the almanac as a cultural artifact that represents a time, a place, and a certain set of assumptions and beliefs, he demonstrates that the genre can provide a lens through which scholars may examine early American attitudes and practices concerning their health in particular and American popular culture in general.

The Hispanic American almanac: a reference work on Hispanics in the United States

The Hispanic American almanac: a reference work on Hispanics in the United States

When Is a Miscellany Not Miscellaneous? Making Sense of the 'Kalender of Shepherds'

ABSTRACT An almanac is many things, by its very definition a compilation of calendrical material and useful information. In the past, it might have been variously used as a handbook, a reference work, a prognosticator's guide, and even possibly as a book of instruction for children. This essay examines The Kalender of Shepherds, a work popular from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, looking briefly at its publication history and contents, as well as considering some of the sources for its illustration and briefly discussing their subsequent influence, in order to recover the original purpose of the book, which is apparently still influential on the format of the almanac even now. When is a miscellany not miscellaneous? (1) One answer to this riddle might be: when it is an almanac, currently defined as 'a book of tables, containing a calendar of months and days, with astronomical data and calculations, ecclesiastical and other anniversaries, besides other useful information, and, in former days, astrological and astrometeorological forecasts' (OED). An almanac is many things, by its very definition a compilation of calendrical material and 'useful information'. In the past, it might have been variously used as a handbook, a reference work, a would-be prognosticator's guide, and even possibly as a book of instruction for children. (2) This is still true. One may today consult The Old Farmer's 2001 Almanac, subtitled 'North America's Oldest Continuously Published Periodical', which contains weather forecasts for sixteen regions of the United States (predicted up to one year in advance), planting tables and zodiac secrets, and also features 'astronomical tables, tides, holidays, eclipses, etc.'. (3) There are calendar pages, charts of moon phases, and general predictions of the future ('What Soothsayers are Soothsaying About the Next Century and Beyond'), as well as brief essays on curing insomnia, on 'How to Prevent Wrinkles', and on myths and common superstitions, along with recipes for pie, rules for pruning, 'Secrets of the Zodiac', and pages devoted to religious observance and belief (pp. 14, 98-105, 107, 116-30, 304). The Kalender of Shepherds, its late medieval counterpart, might initially look like a similarly random hodgepodge of texts, but it is what people have come to expect from an almanac. The folk wisdom of the farmer as set forth in the modern American almanac seems part of the continuum of the wisdom of shepherds that delighted and informed readers from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries. My purpose here is to look briefly at the publication history and at the contents of the Kalender, to consider some of the sources for its illustration and briefly discuss their subsequent influence, and finally, to recover the original purpose of the book, which is apparently still influential on the format of the almanac even now. Contents The Kalender of Shepherds was printed and reprinted in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Judging from its reprint history, the Kalender was extremely popular, with eight printings in Paris and Geneva between 1493 and 1500. The first English edition (actually a poor translation of the French text into Scots dialect) appeared in 1503 (STC 22407). (4) According to the Revised Short-Title Catalogue, following this edition, the Kalender of Shepherds remained in print in England in a variety of versions until 1631, going through some nineteen editions. (5) A miscellany of shepherd's lore, tables for finding the dates of moveable feasts, descriptions of the torments of purgatory, and explications of the Ten Commandments, Lord's Prayer, and Apostles' Creed, along with medical and other practical information, the Shepherd's Kalender was heavily illustrated, the pictures in the English editions deriving from woodcut models in the French editions, printed first by Guy Marchant and published by Antoine Verard. Copies were owned in France and England by aristocratic and middle-class readers. …

Restoring a "Public Standard" to Accuracy: Authority, Social Class, and Utility in the American Almanac Controversy, 1814-1818

Restoring a "Public Standard" to Accuracy: Authority, Social Class, and Utility in the American Almanac Controversy, 1814-1818

The Asian American almanac: a reference work on Asians in the United States

The Asian American almanac: a reference work on Asians in the United States

The Native North American almanac: a reference work on native North Americans in the United States and Canada

The Native North American almanac: a reference work on native North Americans in the United States and Canada

The Native American almanac: a portrait of Native America today

For students, researchers, writers and history buffs, this wide-ranging portrait of the first Americans is full of hard-to-find information. Each chapter focuses on a particular topic, such as early encounters with Europeans, religious traditions, treaties, tribal governments, language and literature. 100 photos; maps.GBC (West/Southwest)

Reference Serials

Canadian Almanac and Directory. 1847— . A. $39.00. Published by Copp Clark Pitman, 517 Wellington St. W., Toronto, Ontario M5V 1G1, Canada; available in the U.S. from Gale Research Co., Book Tower, Detroit, MI 48226. Editor: Susan Walters. LC CN75–32392. ISSN 0068–8193. ISBN 0–7730–4043–9 (Copp Clark Pitman); 0–8103–1186–0 (Gale). Now in its 134th year of publication, the Canadian Almanac and Directory offers a great deal of useful information in a compact form. This source embodies a straightforward, no‐nonsense attitude; the extended feature articles, news summaries, and lifestyle items that have become standard fare in American almanacs are conspicuously absent here.

Marion Barber Stowell. <italic>Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible</italic>. New York: Burt Franklin. 1977. Pp. xviii, 331. Paper $7.95

Marion Barber Stowell. Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible. New York: Burt Franklin. 1977. Pp. xviii, 331. Paper $7.95 Stowell Marion Barber. Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible. New York: Burt Franklin. 1977. Pp. xviii, 331. Paper $7.95. Charles E. Clark Charles E. Clark University of New Hampshire Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 84, Issue 2, April 1979, Pages 539–540, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/84.2.539 Published: 01 April 1979

Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible

Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible

Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible.

Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible.

Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible. Marion Barber Stowell

<i>Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible</i>. Marion Barber Stowell