Monday, September 9, 2019

Benjamin Franklins Autobiography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Benjamin Franklins Autobiography - Essay Example He attended school for only 2 years despite his passion for reading. When he was 12 years old, he joined his brother James to become an  apprentice  at the print shop. He wrote his first  newspaper  in Boston when he was 15 years. He wrote several letters and finally announced that he was the  writer  when the letters became a hit. He ran away to Philadelphia at 17 when his brother was  furious  about his writing (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 1). He was amongst the  naissance  fathers of the United States.  He was an  inventor, a representative, a scientist, a  principal  writer and above all, he was a theorist.  He loved doing experiments and this  was well shown  in the experiments he did regarding  power  and lightning after experimenting on kites in an event of a lightning storm.  He also published â€Å"Poor Richard’s Almanac’’ and the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1733 (Franklin 45). In the Continental legislature, Benjamin served as the Postmaster General before becoming a  famous  abolitionist and this illustrates his active participation in politics.  Some of the  scientific  inventions that he made include the lightning stick, swimfins, Franklin Stove after inventing the Pennsylvania Fireplace in 1743 and eyeglasses and these earned him much credit. He  was associated  with the renowned phrase like Almanac like  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœa  penny saved is a penny earned†.  Following Benjamin Franklins  death  April 17,1790, a year later, there was the publication of his autobiography and  was entitled  Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬â„¢Memories De La Vie Privee† in  paris, March 1791.  Later on there was a  translation  of the same in the English version named ‘’The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin†Ã‚  initially  written by him (Franklin 58). Benjamin Franklin was successful in his attempt to self  improvement  because he  put  so much effort in his work and  put  less time to  leisure  because he never valued leisure.  The major  declaration  to fame

Sunday, September 8, 2019

Interpersonal Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Interpersonal Communications - Essay Example (Guffey, 2006; Bonnet, 2000) The incident that I am going to cite here is actually observed by one of my friends in his internship at a software house last summer. My friend was there at the business analysis department and the incident took place in the same department. The incident shows that how the poor listening can lead to negative consequences. It was Friday morning, the weekend was about to start in few hours and was a signal of relaxation after the week long tiresome efforts of business analysis. The last task for the week that Ms. Jenifer Mitchells, the supervisor of my friend, had to make the last visit of the day to New Star and Company for the purpose of requirement analysis for the decision support system the Soft Tech, the company to which Ms. Jenifer belonged, was developing. This project meant a lot to the Soft Tech because New Start Company was a very big client for them. This was the first time Soft Tech was given any information system development project by New Star and Company, an organization dealing in logistics. On that day my friend also accompanied her. My friend told that he got a feeling that on one hand Ms. Jenifer is a bit in hurry for one of his personal commitments few hours later (she herself told this to my friend) that's why she wanted to end the meeting soon. Moreover, Ms. Jenifer was a fresh graduate of a renowned technical university with the gold medal. This, according to my friend, made Ms. Jenifer a bit arrogant. After reaching there, the formal introduction and greeting was done. Then the discussion moved to the main point that was business requirements. Since the new system that was supposed to be designed was the decision support system that would help the strategic managers and decision makers in resource optimization and the supervisor of my friend Ms. Jenifer had done her final year project on decision support system that is why she was not at all interested in listening what the customers want, rather time and again she used to start telling about her project and pra ising about it, trying to let the clients know that she is a gold medalist. According to my friend, when the customers were telling to her about their requirements, she was repeatedly looking at her wrist watch, probably that was giving a gesture that she is running out of time. Moreover she was not noting down their requirements on paper as much. When the reason for it was asked by friend, she said that she had done such project earlier too, so now doing such project again is not an issue for her, thus she did not need to note each and everything down on paper. It was suggested by the person briefing to us that we should conduct interviews from people involved in decision making who would be using the system that they develop so as to have the better understanding of what they exactly want. Ms. Jenifer was not interested in even that too. Finally the meeting ended with all 'hearing' but no 'listening'. On Monday when Ms. Jenifer came to work again, she presented the meeting report to her manager. Her

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Business Writing Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Business Writing Portfolio - Essay Example The schedule of part timer will be completed in one to three weekly shifts. The stores will open an hour later and will close an hour later. The stores will stay close on Sundays. We would like to inform to all our valued customers that there are going be changes in the stores schedule. The store will be closed on Sundays. From Monday to Saturday the store will open an hour earlier and close an hour later. The overall time that the store will be open will stay the same. Writing business communications is very different than writing academic papers. It is much easy to write business communications because in this type of writing one simply has to express direct messages to a particular group of people. Academic writing requires a lot research. Academic writings are typically much more extensive than business memos or communications. Business writing requires technical writing skills, while academic writing requires people to have extensive knowledge of the English

Friday, September 6, 2019

Samsung Group Essay Example for Free

Samsung Group Essay The name â€Å"Samsung† according to the founder of the group Lee Byung Chull a migrant of a large land owning family in Uiryeong county to a city called Daegu where he founded Samsung Sanghoe explained that it means â€Å"tristars† or â€Å"three stars†; the word â€Å"three† represents something big, numerous and powerful. The â€Å"stars† represent â€Å"eternity†. Samsung has undergone lots transformation before being the giant Samsung it is today and it has proven to withstand the test of time where most Asian companies have dissolved during the Asian financial crisis. Its first product was a black-and-white television set. In the 50’s, when the Korean War broke out; Lee was forced to leave Seoul and start a sugar refinery in Busan[-gt;1] named Cheil Jedang[-gt;2]. After the war, in 1954, Lee founded Cheil Mojik and built the plant in Chimsan-dong, Daegu. It was the largest woollen mill ever in the country and the company took on the aspect of a major company. After the founders death in 1987, Samsung Group was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Shinsegae (discount store, department store) was originally part of Samsung Group, separated in the 1990s from the Samsung Group along with CJ Group (Food/Chemicals/Entertainment/logistics) and the Hansol Group (Paper/Telecom). Today these separated groups are independent and they are not part of or connected to the Samsung Group. In the 1980s, Samsung Electronics began to invest heavily in research and development, investments that were pivotal in pushing the company to the forefront of the global electronics industry. Our main purpose in this section is to declare what kind of tools we are going to use to analyze the competitive advantage of one of Samsung Group’s subsidiaries – Samsung Electronics. Any company in the business world would want to maintain and achieve competitive advantage if it intends to really survive the scheme of its rivals. One of these ways is to conduct a strategic analysis of the company. This enables us to adjust and monitor the position of the company, exploit new opportunities, and prepare for rainy days. There is one way of doing that- conducting a strategic evaluation of the company. According to Peter Drucker â€Å"unless strategy evaluation is performed seriously and systematically, and unless strategists are willing to act on the results, energy will be used up defending yesterday. No one will have the time, resources, or will to work on exploiting today, let alone to work on making tomorrow†. In other words, strategic evaluation gives the company a feel of or connection to the business environment it is operating in. Strategic evaluation is vital to the organization’s well being. Strategic evaluation includes three basic activities: examining the underlying basis of a firm’s strategy, comparing expected results with actual results, and taking corrective actions to ensure that performance conforms to plans. Samsung Electronics is the worlds largest mobile phone maker[-gt;8] by 2011 unit sales and worlds second-largest semiconductor chip maker[-;gt;9] by 2011 revenues (after Intel Corporation[-;gt;10]). It has been the worlds largest television manufacturer[-gt;11] since 2006 and the worlds largest maker of LCD panels for eight consecutive years. It has the largest market share worldwide in memory chips[-;gt;12]. The company is the worlds largest vendor of smart phones[-gt;13] since 2011. Samsung has also established a prominent position in the tablet computer[-gt;14] market, with the release of the Android[-gt;15]-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab[-gt;16]. This section of the paper is meant to access and assess the strategies they have been applying since their existence and to advise them on the strategic options available to them now and in the future. In this paper we would use the following analyses: SWOT analyses, PEST analyses, Porter’s Five Forces, Strategic Group and the VRIO model analyses. SWOT is the acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats surrounding the business in its environment. In other words, it guides you to identify the positives and negatives inside and outside your organization. SWOT analysis is the most renowned tool for audit and analysis of the overall strategic position of the business and its environment. Its key purpose is to identify the strategies that will create a firm specific business model that will best align an organization’s resources and capabilities to the requirements of the environment in which the firm operates. In other words, it is the foundation for evaluating the internal potential and limitations and the likely opportunities and threats from the external environment. The strength and weaknesses give you an insight of your internal advantages relative to other companies and disadvantages relative to other companies, in other words, it measures the competitive advantage. They are usually the factors that you have control over. The opportunities and threats are considered to be the external factors that you have no control over; it could be technological change, legislation, socio-cultural change, etc. The opportunities and threats give you an insight of the factors that the organization can exploit to it advantages and the factors that could cause trouble for the business. Pestel is an acronym for political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal analysis. It describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management.  ·Political factors are basically to what degree the government intervenes in the economy.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Eating Disorder Case Study

Eating Disorder Case Study ‘When normal eating becomes abnormal’ Eating is a crucial activity for humans, as the food we consume acts to provide us with the fuel we need to keep our bodies running, and to live our daily lives. Normal levels of eating can be characterised as consuming just enough calories (of energy) to allow us to function as we require, and not to have so much left over that is not used and subsequently stored as fat cells. Exactly what level is characterised will vary on an individual-to-individual basis, as ‘normal’ will be subject to individual differences such as activity levels, age and metabolic rate, which can all affect the rate at which energy is used or stored by the body. Abnormal eating can thus be seen to occur when we either consume too much or too little energy (food) for what we need, and forms the basis of negative eating behaviour, classed as eating disorders. There are two main eating disorders; anorexia nervosa, and bulimia. Anorexia is perhaps the most well-known of the disorders, and attracts a great deal of media coverage and celebrity profiles associated with the condition such as Victoria Beckham, Calistra Flockheart and the Olsen twins (Mary-Kate and Ashley). Characterised by deliberate and extreme weight loss through the withholding of hold often to the point of emaciation, anorexics will constantly worry about food, with such cognitions visible through behaviours such as obsessive weighing and calorie counting and abnormal levels of control in regards to food. Self-image is chronically out of touch with reality, with individuals at the later stages of the condition still seeing their body as fat, despite being seriously underweight. Through this self-inflicted starvation, the anorexic will start to experience physical symptoms and problems such as stomach pains, growth stunting, osteoporosis and reproduction problems such as the stopping of periods in women, or infertility in men. In the long term, lack of food can be serious to health, with the possibility of leading to kidney, liver and even heart damage, and thus the condition can be fatal. Bulimia is a more common disorder than anorexia and in contrast to the strict self-control of eating regulated by anorexics, bulimia can occur as a result of a lack of control over eating. Bulimics do not starve themselves, instead will binge massive amounts of food (often secretly), and with some cases reported as ingesting as much as 15,000 calories in 1 – 2 hours. After eating until they feel ill, bulimics will then use methods such as vomiting or laxatives to purge themselves of the calories that they have ingested. Physical effects of bulimia can be harder to detect as there is usually no dramatic weight loss, and in many cases is simply the maintenance of weight despite the food binges they have. Associated physical problems include sore and inflamed throat as a result of induced vomiting, which may eventually lead to a difficulty in swallowing. Stomach acid brought up along with food will also cause problems such as burning of the oesophagus and the damaging of tooth en amel. Intestine function can break down when forced repeatedly to expel food; dehydration can occur due to loss of fluids, and when to a serious enough degree can upset the balance of chemicals within the blood with minor consequences including dizziness, and the most serious being heart failure. Bulimia is a condition that is intricately linked with emotions and psychological well-being. Anxiety and unhappiness can binges which then cause guilt and further unhappiness until alleviated by purging. The sufferer is thus trapped in a vicious circle. One of the most high profile cases of bulimia is likely to be that of Princess Diana. Quoted as saying the bulimia was â€Å"a symptom of what was going on in my marriage. I was crying out for help, but giving the wrong signals,† (Panorma, BBC TV, 1995) such a comment is a prime example of the psychological nature of the condition. The difficulty in treatment of bulimia is that emotionally the action of purging is reinforcing by alleviating the guilt and unhappiness felt after a binging session, and thus makes the cycle far harder to break. Most cases of these eating disorders will start during adolescence or early adulthood, and are strongly linked in the literature and media as associated to psychological issues. Personal aspects such as perfectionism, identity and sexuality and self-esteem are strongly correlated factors, with control issues – whether in regards to excessive restraint, or in loss of control over eating, also have a predominant role. Along side these personality traits, the concept of body image, and how it is portrayed is felt to play a major contributing factor to the continued existence and rise of eating disorders. Weight is often seen as a measure of self-worth, attractiveness and sexuality, and subsequently this is modelled by the rich and famous that many adolescents look up to. Whether modelled in movies such as Demi Moore in Charlie’s Angels, or in fashion and celebrity magazines such as Vogue or Heat, young people are surrounded by visual media with images of the perfect body a nd what it means to be attractive and (subsequently associated) successful, and will unsurprisingly want to achieve this. When younger people do not feel that they match up to this notion of beauty, this can act as the psychological trigger to any of the conditions mentioned. The spread of eating disorders across the world alongside Westernisation to continents once free of such conditions, has further demonstrated the role that culture exerts over these diseases. Communication technologies such as the internet have also made the transfer of information such as tricks and tips between sufferers easier by connecting a once hidden and isolated population, the so called ‘Pro-ana (Anorexia) and Pro-mia (Bulimia)’ websites and chat rooms, which may also reinforce sufferer through the social support system such ‘societies and groups’ entail. Role of the media in the message it send out about eating disorders is thus mixed – articles in the written press ap pear to be condoning the behaviour, and yet reading behind the lines often eludes to something else A profile article on Calistra Flockhart in Hello! Magazine describes her anorexia, and yet in the same sentence tells how her ‘look’ is what landed her the role in the TV series Ally McBeal. Men’s magazines such as FHM and Loaded run annual ratings of the most attractive women, and subsequently reinforce the male attitude of thinness as attractive, and women see this as further example of how they believe they are expected to look. However there is evidence for optimism that that there is a shift in the ideology of beauty previously characterised in the 1990’s as the ‘waif supermodel look’ of Kate Moss and Jodie Kidd. Stars such as Beyonce and Jenifer Lopez are beginning to change the boundaries of attractiveness, reinventing the look of the womanly figure and curves. REFERENCES Abraham, S Llewellyn-Jones, D (1992) Eating Disorders: The Facts Oxford University Press Bryan, J (1999) Talking Points: Eating Disorders Wayland Publishers Ltd Carlson, N () Physiology of behaviour (4th Ed) Allyn Bacon Donnellan, C (2001) Confronting eating disorders Volume 24 Independence Internet References www.hellomagazine.com www.eatingdisorderresources.com

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Journalists And Public Relations Practitioners Media Essay

Journalists And Public Relations Practitioners Media Essay Since studying and undertaking work experience in the field of public relations I have realised the need for a good relationship between journalists and PR practitioners if both professions want to achieve their goals and do their job to the highest standard. Writing press releases and then sending them to journalists is an important aspect of a PR practitioners job, so a good relationship between the two is important. Both professions rely on each other; journalists need PR practitioners to provide them with newsworthy stories about their clients or organisation they are working for and PR practitioners need journalists to publish the press releases that they send to them on behalf of their clients or organisation. After writing some press releases and sending them to journalists while undertaking work experience at The Phoenix Partners I found that three of the four press releases which I had written were published by at least one of the journalists which I had sent them to. I also found after analysing press cuttings that many of the press releases written by my colleagues were also often used by journalists. After speaking to two PR practitioners who previously worked as journalists, I was told that PR practitioners are having a big influence in the setting of the news agenda as many of their news stories are being used by the relevant media. What I have learnt while studying PR confirms that what I have seen first hand from my work experience and what I have been told by ex journalists is correct and I have decided to research this topic further to gain a more in-depth knowledge of it. Research Questions In order to come to a conclusion to see whether the influence of the news agenda is being transferred from journalists towards PR practitioners, I have formulated the following research questions: How common is it for news in media outlets to be as a result of PR activity? Do PR practitioners generally have a good relationship with journalists? Has there been a shift in employment in PR and journalism? Methodology To answer the question and to see whether the influence of the news agenda is being transferred from journalists towards public relations practitioners, I will be using a combination of primary and secondary research methods. There has already been a lot of secondary research conducted on this area of PR and journalism and this research will help me to answer all of my research questions. This secondary research includes research already conducted by national organisations and academic teams. I will also be using academic and professional sources in researching the topic. This includes the use of academic textbooks, websites, magazines, newspapers and media reports, allowing me to use a mixture of factual data as well as the thoughts and opinions of researchers, academics and practitioners in the field of PR and journalism. My study will also make use of primary research methods in answering two of my research questions; how common is it for news in media outlets to be as a result of PR activity and do PR practitioners generally have a good relationship with journalists? The primary research will consist of conducting questionnaires, one sent to PR practitioners and one sent to journalists within the West Midlands, England. The questionnaires will ask both open-ended and closed-ended questions which will provide me with enough information to analyse my findings and answer my research questions. I have chosen to use the West Midlands for my investigation as I already have lots of contacts who are PR practitioners within this area and therefore I will benefit from a higher response rate than if I were to send the questionnaire to people who I dont know from other areas. I will use my PR contacts to help me find journalists to respond to the questionnaire, as well as using Mediadisk to find journalists within the West Midlands and contact them directly. The sampling methods I am using are a combination of convenience sampling and snowball sampling. Forzano and Gravetta (2008) state that convenience sampling is where researchers use participants who are easy to get based on their availability and willingness to respond. Babbie (2009) feels that snowball sampling works well when a population is difficult to locate. This is because the researcher collects data from the members of the target population that they can locate and then asks them to help locate other members of the target population that they may know. Ethical Issues When conducting primary and secondary research for my study I need to consider any ethical implications of my research methods. As I will be using secondary data already conducted by national organisations and academic teams, I will ensure that I dont pass any of the research off as my own and I will cite what source I have got the research from. While I analyse my findings from the questionnaires sent to PR practitioners and journalists I will make sure that I dont fabricate, falsify or misinterpret research data. This will ensure that my research is honest and truthful, this is important in order to make my study represent a true reflection of my findings. One of the main factors which discourage participants in taking part in a questionnaire is that they want their answers to remain confidential and anonymous, even to the researcher. To ensure respondents answers to the questionnaire will be kept anonymous, I will be setting up the questionnaire online and wont be asking respondents to fill out their name. This will ensure that any participants who fear for their anonymity can be sure that this ethical issue will not pose them a problem. Literature Review The relationship between journalists and PR practitioners, which has typically been characterised as essentially in conflict, has recently been recast as a trading or exchange relationship in which under-resourced journalists, working in under-staffed newsrooms, increasingly rely on PR sources for editorial copy while offering access to editorial columns for PR messages in return (Gans 1978, Jones 2006). However, Tench and Yeomans (2006) state journalists feel that PR practitioners are incapable of manipulating them and that they are an annoying distraction to them when theyre setting out to do their jobs. While PR practitioners argue that media relations works best if its aim is to provide a service to the media, instead of acting mostly as a promotional channel for their clients or organisation. A long standing stream of PR research has looked at the influence of the news agenda. There is more than 80 years of research on this topic in the USA, Australia and UK. Macnamara (2009) states that USA studies go back as far as 1926 when Silas Bent studied the New York Times and found that out of the 256 stories in the newspaper, 147 of them came from PR sources. In 1963 when a series of studies of the news media was conducted in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it found that 45% of the stories in newspapers and 15% of news aired on radio and television were in some way sourced from PR activity. (Grunig and Hunt, 1984) The New York Times was again looked at along with the Washington Post when Leon Sigal found that around two-thirds of articles originated from press releases and other PR sources. Only 26% of news resulted from reporting, interviews or the journalists own analysis. (Macnamara, 2009) Studies on this subject in Australia date back to more recent times. Macnamara (1993) conducted a study to examine the relationship between PR practitioners and journalists; it also looked at the conflicting claims over the role of and impact of PR in shaping the news agenda. He undertook research for his Masters of Arts by conducting a survey of 417 journalists and editors in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. He found that 86% claimed to have very frequent contact from PR practitioners and 74% said that they received over 20 press releases or other PR communications per week. At the same time 150 press releases were gathered from 27 different companies and a national press clipping service provided 2,500 articles on the topics of the press releases. The study found that 31% of stories were based on the press releases, only nine press releases out of 150 tracked (1.2%) were not used by the media and the average usage rate for the press releases was seven times. A more recent analysis of media content in Australia by Zawawi (2001) conducted an examination of 1,163 articles published by three leading newspapers to identify the origin of news stories. The research confirmed the origin of 683 articles, of which 251 (37%) were sourced from PR activity. The analysis found that surveys, papers and submissions sent to journalists with the aim of attaining media coverage could also be considered as PR activity and these accounted for a further 88 news stories. Taking this into consideration it was concluded that 47% of news items were resulted from PR activity. Davies (2008) commissioned expert researchers from the journalism department of Cardiff University to study a sample of the news running through the British media in 2008. It focused on five daily newspapers; The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph. They chose two random weeks and examined each domestic news item put out by these newspapers, a total of 2,207 pieces. The study found that 54% of news items showed signs of being sourced from PR activity. It also found that only 12% of news stories in newspapers were independently sourced. Schedule 3/5 7/5 8/5 12/5 13/5 17/5 18/5 22/5 23/5 27/5 28/5 1/6 2/6 6/6 7/6 11/6 Preparation Reading literature Note taking Designing Questionnaire Data Collection Distribution of Questionnaire Collection of Questionnaire Data Analysis Analysis of Questionnaire Results Evaluation of Questionnaire Results Writing Introduction Methodology Literature Review Analysis Study Limitations Conclusion Recommendations Proof Reading Chapter Plan Abstract Introduction Methodology 3.1 Research Design Literature Review The Influence of the News Agenda in Australia The Influence of the News Agenda in USA The Influence of the News Agenda in Britain The Relationship Between PR Practitioners and Journalists Changes in Employment in Journalism Changes in Employment in PR Reasons for the Change in Influence of the News Agenda Primary Research Findings of Questionnaire Sent to Journalists Findings of Questionnaire Sent to PR Practitioners Analysis How common is it for news in media outlets to be as a result of PR activity? Do PR practitioners generally have a good relationship with journalists? Has there been a shift in employment in PR and journalism? Is the influence of the news agenda being transferred from journalists towards PR practitioners? Study Limitations Conclusion Recommendations Bibliography References Appendix

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

The Plight of the Common Man in Herman Melvilles Bartleby, the Scriven

George Edward Woodberry, author of the Heart of Man, published in 1899, emphasized the significance of the role of the individual as an active and equal partner in American democratic rule: The doctrine of the equality of mankind by virtue of their birth as men, with its consequent right to equality of opportunity for self-development as a part of social justice, establishes a common basis of conviction, in respect to man, and a definite end as one main object of the State; and these elements are primary in the democratic scheme. Liberty is the next step, and is the means by which that end is secured. It is so cardinal in democracy to strive for a balance between the individual and the mass, so that the identification of the common man as an American ensures him of the promises proposed by the government. (226-227). During the early 1800's, America struggled with the search for identity and the shift toward Liberal Individualism. The revolutionary words of freedom, equality, and brotherhood gave birth to the doctrine of government by the people, for the people, and of the people. These principles were the substance of democracy; these tenets, though fundamentally sound and idealistically honorable, seemed elementary, but to assume that the ideals of democracy were rudimentary and easily attained was a national betrayal. This betrayal, depicted as the futility of the individual to achieve political and representational inclusion in the government and, more importantly, the realization of his importance, belied the struggle. The shift toward Liberal Individualism created the need for a balance between the individual and the community. The election of 1828, which propelled Andrew Jackson to national prominence, marked... ...ye, Thomas R. and L. Harmon Zeigler. The Irony of Democracy. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1970. Hancock, Ralph C. ?Tocqueville?s practical reason.? Perspectives on Political Science 27 (Fall 1998): 212-19. Hans, James S. ?Emptiness and plenitude in Bartleby the scrivener and The crying of lot 49.? Essays in Literature 22 (Fall 1995): 285-99. Hudson, William E. American Democracy in Peril. Chatham: Chatham House, 1995. Stovall, Floyd. American Idealism. Port Washington: Kennikat, 1943. Strong, Douglas M. Perfectionist Politics: Abolitionism and The Religious Tensions Of American Democracy. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1999. Strout, Cushing. Making American Tradition. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1990. Wilentz, Sean. ?Striving for Democracy.? The Wilson Quarterly 23 (Spring 1999): 47-54. Woodberry, George Edward. Heart of Man. London: Macmillan, 1899.