We all live lives based on fiction. So asserts Frances Richardson Keller in this thought-provoking examination of the lies of history, fictions which enter society and affect the course of our lives. Some of the fictions Keller investigates include those involved in the now-common wisdom about: the patriarchal system, Re-Construction and African-American rights, Mormon polygamy, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Fictions of US History offers a new definition of the term "fictions." A fiction is not merely the imaginative literature we treasure in works of novelists, dramatists and poets. It is that. But it is much more. A fiction is a powerful, driving idea that enters the life an individual lives, the course a whole society travels, and the stories historians tell about the long stretches of the human past. In many dimensions, fictions affect every person on planet earth. We all live lives based on fictions. This book expands that definition; then it presents illustrations. The first concerns "the grandest fiction," the patriarchal system. How and where did patriarchy originate? Is it a "fiction" that has moulded our worlds? Can it be superseded by other fictions? The second illustration concerns the fictions that dominated stories historians told about the Re-Construction of this nation after the American Civil War. Did the fictions from which historians wrote their stories about that period condition the way Americans have thought about it ever since? And did those thoughts - those fictions - bear heavily upon African-American rights in our republic? The third illustration centres upon Mormon polygamy in the 19th century. How did it happen that Mormon men and women allowed their society to travel from monogamy to polygamy for forty years, then back to monogamy again? What different fictions became parts of their religious and political beliefs? The fourth and last illustration considers the life of Eleanor Roosevelt. Born into one of America's most established, wealthy, yet troubled, families, we now know this woman as a compassionate twentieth-century champion of human rights, of those in need in every part of the world. This book traces her life and the fictions that empowered her living. The beginning and the end reveal something of the author's involvement with the issues in this book; while she can only guess how she came to the deep concerns of her travels, she does see her book as an expression of her own "fictions."

In 2004-2006, the U.S. government acted to revise the way that the planning and implementation of Stabilization, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) operations are conducted. The primary emphasis of the changes was on ensuring a common U.S. strategy rather than a collection of individual departmental and agency efforts and on mobilizing and involving all available U.S. government assets in the effort. The proximate reason for the policy shift stems from the exposing of gaps in the U.S. ability to administer Afghanistan and Iraq after the U.S.-led ousters of the Taliban and Ba'athist regimes. But the effort to create U.S. government capabilities to conduct SSTR operations in a more unified and coherent fashion rests on the deeper conviction that, as part of the U.S. strategy to deal with transnational terrorist groups, the United States must have the capabilities to increase the governance capacities of weak states, reduce the drivers of and catalysts to conflict, and assist in peacebuilding at all stages of pre- or post-conflict transformation. According to the Joint Operating Concept for Military Support to SSTR operations, these operations are civilian-led and conducted and coordinated with the involvement of all the available resources of the U.S. government (military and civilian), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and international partners. Although military assets are an essential component of many SSTR operations, specific military goals and objectives are only a portion of the larger SSTR operation.

Sponsored by the Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture.

milllrun is an anthology of prose, both fiction and non-fiction, photography, mixed media, and other art by the author. Frances Richardson has been anthologised and won prizes for both her short fiction and poetry. Sculpture and all forms of art have been essential in her life and this anthology shows some of her own artistic pursuits.

The Skipping Boy is a children's book about a boy who loves skipping. He skips everywhere. He joins his sister's dancing class because none of the girls can skip properly, so he shows them how. He eventually becomes The Dancing Boy and leads the girls in a concert about The Pied Piper.

Ever since their mother died, life for the Engles has been tinged with sorrow. As young adults, their search for meaning and identity leads them to pursue different paths: Stephen joins the Jesuits, Kathleen marries a promising young attorney, and Clare enters the convent. The journey of faith, however, is rarely simple and even when you gain your heart's desire the road ahead can still be rocky. As Stephen serves in a rough inner city parish, Kathleen struggles with family troubles, and Clare is challenged by a crisis of faith. But these are simply the events that eventually lead to the mission that will forever change Stephen's life-serving in a foreign land when genocide erupts. Offering a candid look into the hearts and minds of richly developed Catholic characters, Not All of Me Is Dust paints a vivid portrait of the power of forgiving love.

"a sojourn in time" is a novella which looks at the way people from many backgrounds and experiences can come together as a family. It explores what binds them, the problems they face and how they safeguard themselves.