The contemporary method of township government arrived in Illinois in the middle of the nineteenth century. Replacing the commission method of county government, which Illinois had employed since statehood in 1818, the township innovation spread south and westward across Illinois, almost completely ousting the county commissioners. Today, the commission format survives only in seventeen peripheral and largely rural Illinois counties. This book asserts that townships have persisted partly because they offer vital services at a reasonable cost to taxpayers, but also because of a vigorous defense of the method made by township officials with political connections in the Illinois general assembly. Discussing the successes and failures of attempts by abolition-minded citizens to eliminate all or individual townships in various counties, Township focuses on the spatial diffusion, periodic threats to, and determined persistence of the township system.

Set in Appalachian Ohio, Jamie Lyn Smith's debut short story collection, Township, explores a region and the rotating cast of characters who call it home. With honesty and empathy, Smith closely examines the strains that intimate family ties put on lives worn raw by collective history. Ultimately, the nine stories in Township interrogate the notion of reconciliation, examining whether people can truly change and if forgiveness is possible.

"Since the end of the Apartheid, international tourism in South Africa has increasingly gained importance for the national economy. The centre of this PKS issue's attention is a particular form of tourism: township tourism, i.e. guided tours to the residential areas of the black population. About 300,000 tourists per year visit the townships of Cape Town. The tours are also called cultural, social, or reality tours. The different aspects of township tourism in Cape Town were the subject of a geographic field study, which was undertaken during a student research project of Potsdam University in 2007. The text presents the empirical results of the field study, and demonstrates how townships are constructed as spaces of tourism."--Publisher's description.

Using over two hundred historical photographs, Wayne Township offers a unique view of a town that has undergone great change in its lifetime. Wayne was traversed by Native Americans for thousands of years before Dutch businessmen and farmers settled there c. 1695. This book illustrates how Wayne's twenty-first-century landscape of busy retail centers, transportation highways, and residential neighborhoods was once a fertile, cultivated valley. The images in this book reveal Wayne's economic and cultural past, including the farmsteads, barns, gristmills, sawmills, blacksmith shops, and churches that made up the Wayne Township region years ago. Wayne Township provides clues to a past rich in history in the images of more than thirty existing historic structures and lost architectural treasures, and reveals legends, folk tales, ghost stories, and historical fact. The book tells many stories, including those of Arent Schuyler's exploration of the valley and George Washington's formulation of war-winning strategies at the Dey Mansion. It explores early industry in Wayne-the iron furnace at Pompton Falls, the brick manufacturing and powder works in Mountain View, and the arrival of the railroad in the area. Pictured are famous twentieth-century residents Albert Payson Terhune and his collies, Cecil B. DeMille, LeGrand Parish, and the horse Preakness.

This book is based on an empirical research on the governance and reform of the contemporary township system in China. It provides an insightful and innovative understanding of China's township system. The book consists of four parts. The first part discusses the historical changes, present situation and practical operation of China's township system. The second part compares several practice models of reform, and analyses the motivational forces, path and trend of the reform process. The third part studies the reconstruction of modern township governance system and other relevant institutional innovations. The fourth part focuses on the investigation and case analysis of the actual operation of the township system at multi-dimensional levels. Contents: China's Township System The Reform of China's Township System The Reconstruction of Modern Township Governance System Field Investigation Readership: Policy-makers, professionals, academics, undergraduates and graduate students interested in the governance and reform of China's township system. Keywords: Township System in China;Structural Reform;Governance in Rural ChinaReview: Key Features: Based on long-term research on the reform of China's township system First-hand material based on a large number of investigations Original propositions on the reform of China's township system