Examinations of wargaming for entertainment; education; and military planning; in terms of design; critical analysis; and historical contexts.Games with military themes date back to antiquity; and yet they are curiously neglected in much of the academic and trade literature on games and game history. This volume fills that gap; providing a diverse set of perspectives on wargaming's past; present; and future. In Zones of Control; contributors consider wargames played for entertainment; education; and military planning; in terms of design; critical analysis; and historical contexts. They consider both digital and especially tabletop games; most of which cover specific historical conflicts or are grounded in recognizable real-world geopolitics. Game designers and players will find the historical and critical contexts often missing from design and hobby literature; military analysts will find connections to game design and the humanities; and academics will find documentation and critique of a sophisticated body of cultural work in which the complexity of military conflict is represented in ludic systems and procedures.Each section begins with a long anchoring chapter by an established authority; which is followed by a variety of shorter pieces both analytic and anecdotal. Topics include the history of playing at war; operations research and systems design; wargaming and military history; wargaming's ethics and politics; gaming irregular and non-kinetic warfare; and wargames as artistic practice.ContributorsJeremy Antley; Richard Barbrook; Elizabeth M. Bartels; Ed Beach; Larry Bond; Larry Brom; Lee Brimmicombe-Wood; Rex Brynen; Matthew B. Caffrey; Jr.; Luke Caldwell; Catherine Cavagnaro; Robert M. Citino; Laurent Closier; Stephen V. Cole; Brian Conley; Greg Costikyan; Patrick Crogan; John Curry; James F. Dunnigan; Robert J. Elder; Lisa Faden; Mary Flanagan; John A. Foley; Alexander R. Galloway; Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi; Don R. Gilman; A. Scott Glancy; Troy Goodfellow; Jack Greene; Mark Herman; Kacper Kwiatkowski; Tim Lenoir; David Levinthal; Alexander H. Levis; Henry Lowood; Elizabeth Losh; Esther MacCallum-Stewart; Rob MacDougall; Mark Mahaffey; Bill McDonald; Brien J. Miller; Joseph Miranda; Soraya Murray; Tetsuya Nakamura; Michael Peck; Peter P. Perla; Jon Peterson; John Prados; Ted S. Raicer; Volko Ruhnke; Philip Sabin; Thomas C. Schelling; Marcus Schulzke; Miguel Sicart; Rachel Simmons; Ian Sturrock; Jenny Thompson; John Tiller; J. R. Tracy; Brian Train; Russell Vane; Charles Vasey; Andrew Wackerfuss; James Wallis; James Wallman; Yuna Huh Wong
#5038792 in Books Wilbert L Jenkins 1998-07-22 1998-07-22Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.25 x 1.02 x 6.12l; 1.18 #File Name: 0253333806256 pagesSeizing The New Day
Review
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. A different Civil War storyBy Mark Mills`Seizing the New Day' is a wonderful book about enslaved southerners of Charleston; South Carolina freeing themselves. They are 'seizing the new day;' no gifts are discussed here. They are a somewhat surly group; quick to anger; but careful to keep long term goals in mind. They are still a surly group at the book's end; but they have made a lot of progress.The focus is very narrow; but richly detailed. We only follow the events in Charleston. Who lived next to whom? What church did they go to? What school did they attend? Who did they marry?This is a story of the `Civil War.' Told from the street level of Charleston between 1850 and 1870; it twists the `accepted story' presented by Hollywood. I'm used to the Civil War starting with the shelling of Fort Sumter and ending with Lee's surrender at Appomattox. This version of the `Civil War' starts with the Nat Turner rebellion and ends with the 15th amendment. Instead of the great establishment leaders like Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln; this war is fought by people that won't abide with bondage. It is a war between slave owners and those they seek to dominate.There is no talk of a Northern Army `freeing' people; the most prominent army unit mentioned is the 21st United States Colored Troops. The mayor of Charleston surrendered the city to them on February 18; 1865.The book is organized into 7 chapters. The first two and last are narrative; the war story. Chapters 3 through 6 develop sub themes regarding how the winners of the war (remember; the Mayor surrendered to colored troops) went about establishing economic; educational and community institutions for `the New Day.'The book is careful to bolster its case by retelling hundreds of stories pulled from contemporary sources; autobiographies; newspapers; government documents; etc. Anyone writing a civil war film script would find this book a welcome source of authentic street scenes.Despite the bold title; the notion of `seizing liberty' is rather hidden in the multitude of individual stories recounted here. It's easy to read the book as a colorful recap of many small and disconnected efforts. I suspect this reflects the author's desire to maintain academic respectability. The story about Lee and Grant is; after all; the accepted version.
