This is the story of Michael Kennedy's life. Born in 1960 with significant disabilities, he describes his early experiences living in three different institutions for the mentally retarded and how he had to become his own advocate if he was going to survive. He soon realized that, unlike most of the others in institutions, he could make his voice heard. He had to speak up to help himself and other individuals with developmental disabilities to learn about their rights, and how to prevent themselves from becoming trapped forever within complicated state bureaucracies. After moving out of the last institution into various types of supported living settings, Michael describes how he found new friendships, went to school, got a "real" job, and began to aspire to having full control of his own life. "I want to let people know how the state system used to be and that institutions must never be reopened." This is a book about hard work, resilience, and hope. It is an extraordinary life story, but told by an ordinary man with a clear mission to help others like himself.

A pendant to two well-received books by the same author on the departmental clubs during the early years of the Revolution, this book is the product of thirty years of scholarly study, including archival research in Paris and in more than seventy departments in France. It focuses on the twenty-eight months from May 1793 to August 1795, a period spanning the Federalist Revolt, the Terror, and the Thermidorian Reaction. The Federalist Revolt, in which many clubs were involved, had momentous consequences for all of them and was, in the local setting, the principal cause of the Reign of Terror, a period in which more than 5,300 communes had clubs that reached the zenith of their power and influence, engaging in a myriad of political, administrative, judicial, religious, economic, social, and war-related activities. The book ends with their decline and final dissolution by a decree of the Convention in Paris.

Derived from the classicOxford Dictionary of Music, this is the most authoritative dictionary of music available in paperback. Up-to-date and clearly written, it is a rich mine of information for lovers of music of all periods and styles. Written by Michael Kennedy, a renowned authority on classical music and chief music critic for The Sunday Telegraph, from 1989 to 2005, the dictionary includes over 14,000 entries on musical terms from allegro to zingaro, and on musical works from Aida to Tosca, as well as musical instruments and their history, composers, librettists, musicians, singers, and orchestras. It also boasts comprehensive works lists for major composers. Fully revised and updated, the 5th edition of this established reference work contains over 200 new entries, including information on aproximately 150 new performers. Essential reference for music students and teachers, and fascinating reading for all other music enthusiasts.

"Transition" is the name typically given to the time of radical change following the fall of communism, connoting a shift from planned to market economy, from dictatorship to democracy. Transition is also, in Michael Kennedy's analysis, a culture in its own right -- with its own contentions, repressions, and unrealized potentials. By elaborating transition as a culture of power and viewing it in its complex relation to emancipation, nationalism, and war, Kennedy's book clarifies the transformations of postcommunism as well as, more generally, the ways in which culture articulates social change. Kennedy examines transition culture's historical foundation by looking at the relationship among perestroika, Poland, and Hungary, and considers its structure and practice in the following decade. His wide-ranging analysis -- of the artifacts of transition culture's proponents, of interviews with providers and recipients of technical assistance in business across Eastern Europe, and of focus groups assessing the successes and failures of social change in Estonia and Ukraine -- suggests a transition culture deeply implicated in nationalism. Book jacket.

Accompanying CD-ROM contains Fast Facts checklists, data sets to support exercises, and color figures from the book.

In this revised and enlarged edition, Michael Kennedy has drawn on new documentary evidence to produce a much fuller account of Mahler's childhood and youth, and of his years as an opera conductor in Prague, Leipzig, Budapest, Hamburg, and Vienna.

Now available in paperback and with over 10,000 entries, the Oxford Dictionary of Music (previously the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music) offers broad coverage of a wide range of musical categories spanning many eras, including composers, librettists, singers, orchestras, important ballets and operas, and musical instruments and their history. The Oxford Dictionary of Music is the most up-to-date and accessible dictionaryof musical terms available and an essential point of reference for music students, teachers, lecturers, professional musicians, as well as music enthusiasts.

"The Oxford Dictionary of Music is an indispensable guide for all music lovers and performers. It brings together an unrivalled collection of entries covering musical subjects of all kinds in an authoritative and accessible way." "There are 5,000 entries on composers, including contemporary figures such as Elliott Carter, Arvo Part, and Judith Weir - most with worklists that have been brought up to date. The entries on conductors and performers, including people active today such as Cecilia Bartoli, Simon Rattle, and Bryn Terfel, have also been updated. There are entries on directors and critics, producers and designers, on writers and scholars, and on music journals, as well as on musical terms and forms, instruments, works, and venues."--BOOK JACKET.

And other works that hold the stage to this day. His brilliant tone poems for orchestra include such staples of the repertory as Death and Transfiguration, Don Juan, Ein Heldenleben, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, and Also sprach Zarathustra - source of the famous "sunrise" music used in the film 2001. A distinguished composer of songs, chamber music, and ballets as well, Strauss was also one of the outstanding conductors of his time, directing opera companies in.