In April 2008, state police and child protection authorities raided Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Texas, a community of 800 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist branch of the Mormons. State officials claimed that the raid, which was triggered by anonymous phone calls from an underage girl to a domestic violence hotline, was based on evidence of widespread child sexual abuse. In a high-risk paramilitary operation, 439 children were removed from the custody of their parents and held until the Third Court of Appeals found that the state had overreached. Not only did the state fail to corroborate the authenticity of the hoax calls, but evidence reveals that Texas officials had targeted the FLDS from the outset, planning and preparing for a confrontation. Saints under Siege provides a thorough, theoretically grounded critical examination of the Texas state raid on the FLDS while situating this event in a broader sociological context. The volume considers the raid as an exemplar case of a larger pattern of state actions against minority religions, offering comparative analyses to other government raids both historically and across cultures. In its look beyond the Texas raid, it provides compelling evidence of social intolerance and state repression of unpopular minority faiths in general, and the FLDS in particular.

Although there is growing concern over Satanism as a threat to American life, the topic has received surprisingly little serious attention. Recognizing this, the editors of this volume have selected papers from a wide variety of disciplines, broadly covering contemporary aspects of Satanism from the vantage points of studies in folklore, cults, religion, deviance, rock music, rumor, and the mass media. All contributors are skeptical of claims that a large, powerful satanic conspiracy can be substantiated. Their research focuses instead on claims about Satanism and on the question of whose interests are served by such claims. Several papers consider the impact of anti-Satanism campaigns on public opinion, law enforcement and civil litigation, child protection services, and other sectors of American society. The constructionist perspective adopted by the editors does not deny the existence of some activities by “real” Satanists, and two papers describe the workins of satanic groups. Whatever the basis of the claims examined and analyzed, there is growing evidence that belief in the satanic menace will have real social consequences in the years ahead.

Successful industrial heterogeneous catalysts fulfill several key require ments: in addition to high catalytic activity for the desired reaction, with high selectivity where appropriate, they also have an acceptable commercial life and are rugged enough for transportation and charging into plant reactors. Additional requirements include the need to come online smoothly in a short time and reproducible manufacturing procedures that involve convenient processes at acceptable cost. The development of heterogeneous catalysts that meet these (often mutually exclusive) demands is far from straightforward, and in addition much of the actual manufacturing tech nology is kept secret for commercial reasons-thus there is no modern text that deals with the whole of this important subject. Principles of Catalyst Development, which deals comprehensively with the design, development, and manufacture of practical heterogeneous catalysts, is therefore especially valuable in meeting the long-standing needs of both industrialists and academics. As one who has worked extensively on a variety of catalyst development problems in both industry and academia, James T. Richardson is well placed to write an authoritative book covering both the theory and the practice of catalyst development. Much of the material contained in this book had its origin in a series of widely acclaimed lectures, attended mainly by industrial researchers, given over many years in the United States and Europe. All those in industry who work with catalysts, both beginners and those of considerable experience, should find this volume an essential guide.

"Excellent study which moves back and forth between theory and empirical observations. It looks at religious groups from several different theoretical positions as well as raises a number of significant issues about the conduct of eld research."--Russell R. Dynes, American Sociological Association

Although there is growing concern over Satanism as a threat to American life, the topic has received surprisingly little serious attention. Recognizing this, the editors of this volume have selected papers from a wide variety of disciplines, broadly covering contemporary aspects of Satanism from the vantage points of studies in folklore, cults, religion, deviance, rock music, rumor, and the mass media. All contributors are skeptical of claims that a large, powerful satanic conspiracy can be substantiated. Their research focuses instead on claims about Satanism and on the question of whose interests are served by such claims. Several papers consider the impact of anti-Satanism campaigns on public opinion, law enforcement and civil litigation, child protection services, and other sectors of American society. The constructionist perspective adopted by the editors does not deny the existence of some activities by “real” Satanists, and two papers describe the workins of satanic groups. Whatever the basis of the claims examined and analyzed, there is growing evidence that belief in the satanic menace will have real social consequences in the years ahead.

A physician-anthropologist explores how public health practices--from epidemiological modeling to outbreak containment--help perpetuate global inequities. In Epidemic Illusions, Eugene Richardson, a physician and an anthropologist, contends that public health practices--from epidemiological modeling and outbreak containment to Big Data and causal inference--play an essential role in perpetuating a range of global inequities. Drawing on postcolonial theory, medical anthropology, and critical science studies, Richardson demonstrates the ways in which the flagship discipline of epidemiology has been shaped by the colonial, racist, and patriarchal system that had its inception in 1492. Deploying a range of rhetorical tools and drawing on his clinical work in a variety of epidemics, including Ebola in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, leishmania in the Sudan, HIV/TB in southern Africa, diphtheria in Bangladesh, and SARS-CoV-2 in the United States, Richardson concludes that the biggest epidemic we currently face is an epidemic of illusions—one that is propagated by the coloniality of knowledge production.

In the author's words, taken from the preface: "I went on active duty on the first day of July 1943, and was discharged in March 1946. Between those dates I experienced the frightening, the pathetic, the moving, the ridiculous, the funny and the unbelievable, all to a degree I would not have thought possible. Just short of my twenty-second birthday I entered the Army a bookish, somewhat introverted person. For what happened then, read on." A remarkable story of courage, resourcefulness, tragedy and humor, Blood and Candles is unlike any other account of World War II that has ever been published. The author's combat duty lasted for seven months during which he served as a runner or scout, sometimes finding himself alone behind enemy lines. Once he was even captured by the Americans and was almost shot as a German spy posing as an American. How he got out of that jam and many others will keep the reader fascinated from cover to cover. While the climax of the book describes some of the most intense combat of the war, in which almost everyone around him was killed or seriously wounded, the author's experiences during basic training and after the War, attending the Sorbonne under the auspices of the Army, are equally fascinating.

This report documents the results and findings of dead air space tests on the chemically protected deployable medical systems (DEPMEDS) conducted at Fort Indiantown Gap, PA. The DEPMEDS are composed of various size overpressurized chemically protected shelters connected by viaducts. Designed by the U.S. Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center (NATICK), the shelters provide a clean air conditioned atmosphere to treat wounded personnel in a chemical warfare environment. NATICK requested the U.S. Army Chemical Research, Development and Engineering Center's support to identify any dead air spaces, because these spaces would be a potential chemical agent vapor accumulation location, and threaten the collective protection of the shelters. Initially, a smoke generator was utilized to observe the air flow patterns within the DEPMEDS, and suspect dead air space locations were identified. However, subsequent dissemination of sulfur hexafluoride into the ventilation system of the shelter indicated that no dead air spaces were present. This report includes a few suggestions to improve the air circulation of the DEPMEDS, namely elimination of the interior shelter liners and using doors between the viaducts connecting the various shelters. Sulfur, Ventilation kinetics, Shelters, Collective protection, Hexafluoride, Chemical agent simulants.