Once upon a time ethnographers returning from the field simply sat down, shuffled their note cards, and wrote up their descriptions of the exotic and quaint customs they had observed. Today scholars in all disciplines are realizing how their research is presented is at least as important as what is presented. Questions of voice, style, and audience--the classic issues of rhetoric--have come to the forefront in academic circles. John Van Maanen, an experienced ethnographer of modern organizational structures, is one who believes that the real work begins when he returns to his office with cartons of notes and tapes. In Tales of the Field he offers readers a survey of the narrative conventions associated with writing about culture and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of various styles. He introduces first the matter-of-fact, realistic report of classical ethnography, then the self-absorbed confessional tale of the participant-observer, and finally the dramatic vignette of the new impressionistic style. He also considers, more briefly, literary tales, jointly told tales, and the theoretically focused formal and critical tales. Van Maanen illustrates his discussion of each style with excerpts from his own work on the police. Tales of the Field offers an informal, readable, and lighthearted treatment of the rhetorical devices used to present the results of fieldwork. Though Van Maanen argues ultimately for the validity of revealing the self while representing a culture, he is sensitive to the differing methods and aims of sociology and anthropology. His goal is not to establish one true way to write ethnography, but rather to make ethnographers of all varieties examine their assumptions about what constitutes a truthful cultural portrait and select consciously and carefully the voice most appropriate for their tales. Written with grace and humor, Tales of the Field will be an invaluable introduction to novices just learning the fieldwork trade and provocative stimulant to veteran ethnographers. "Engaging and well written."--H. Ottenheimer, Choice

Identifies narrative conventions in ethnology, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of various writing styles, and shows examples of each approach

Tales of the Field began as a chronicle of hunting memories amongst a group of friends that considered one day we would be too old to remember them if not captured for posterity. Putting those memories on paper brought to life the vivid sunrises and sunsets, the pungent smell of flooded timber, and wet dogs shaking off water after a great retrieve, as well as those days where nothing goes right. David Brown's first chance at publishing has filled this book with stories that may stir up memories of your days afield. It embodies many experiences, good and bad with friends, and that is what life is all about. From hunting in pit blinds, layouts or standing in oak bottoms for waterfowl, this book covers a myriad of adventure tales with a few special days of turkey hunting too. As we currently live in a time where our days are seemingly driven by technology, the hope is for you to take a reprieve from the chaos, find a comfortable chair and read about a time when moments in the woods and water surely bring a smile to your face and a feeling of peace in your soul.

The Works of Eugene Field is a collection of poetry and essays by American author Eugene Field, originally published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1896 under the title The Writings in Prose and Verse of Eugene Field. Known for his children's poetry, especially the light-hearted "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod," Field was a journalist who found his niche in poetry and humor writing. The original collection, published after Field's death and including artwork and letters from the author, is a charming set of books compiling all his works. Republished here for young readers and collectors of Americana, The Works of Eugene Field is sure to delight audiences young and old. Volume X of this twelve-volume set, Second Book of Tales, despite the title, is the third collection of short stories and prose in the series. It includes three stories that were unpublished in book form at the time of Field's death. There is an Introduction by American author and artist F. Hopkinson Smith. EUGENE FIELD (1850-1895) was an American author known for his humorous essays and children's poetry. Interested in many subjects and unable to decide what to do with his life, Field attended three colleges-Williams College, Knox College, and University of Missouri-tried his hand at acting, law, and journalism, and traveled Europe before meeting his wife and becoming city editor for the St. Joseph Gazette in St. Joseph, Missouri. He wrote and edited for several newspapers, establishing himself as a humor writer and publishing poetry. He died of a heart-attack at 45.

'A Little Book of Profitable Tales' is a collection of short stories written by Eugene Field. More than a dozen titles are presented in this book's pages, including 'The Oak-Tree and the Ivy', 'The Hampshire Hills', 'The Old Man', and 'The Little Yaller Baby'.

Everybody has heard that we live in a world made of atoms. But far more fundamentally, we live in a universe made of quanta. Many things are not made of atoms: light, radio waves, electric current, magnetic fields, Earth's gravitational field, not to mention exotica such a neutron stars, black holes, dark energy, and dark matter. But everything, including atoms, is made of highly unified or "coherent" bundles of energy called "quanta" that (like everything else) obey certain rules. In the case of the quantum, these rules are called "quantum physics." This is a book about quanta and their unexpected, some would say peculiar, behavior--tales, if you will, of the quantum. The quantum has developed the reputation of being capricious, bewildering, even impossible to understand. The peculiar habits of quanta are certainly not what we would have expected to find at the foundation of physical reality, but these habits are not necessarily bewildering and not at all impossible or paradoxical. This book explains those habits--the quantum rules--in everyday language, without mathematics or unnecessary technicalities. While most popular books about quantum physics follow the topic's scientific history from 1900 to today, this book follows the phenomena: wave-particle duality, fundamental randomness, quantum states, superpositions (being in two places at once), entanglement, non-locality, Schrodinger's cat, and quantum jumps, and presents the history and the scientists only to the extent that they illuminate the phenomena.