James W White

Helen Steves, a young woman of 19, slouched in her favorite chair, leaned back and kicked off her shoes. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly on a warm, Texas afternoon in August, 1936. Helen enjoyed her quiet moments, but those moments were numbered. Soon, Helen would be pulled out of her chair and sent to far off Los Angeles, California in the company of people the likes of which she couldn't even imagine back in her comfortably dull Texas home. Helen told her mother, "Everybody gets a chance to grab the golden ring. Some take that chance, some don't. It's there for the taking, but every time that ring comes in my direction, I'm paying attention to things that don't matter. Know what I mean?" Unfortunately, Helen's chance for the ring don't go as planned. Turns out, the world has a different plan for her, and after an inauspicious start, Helen finds out taking chances, even well intended chances, can be risky.

Ransoms Are For Amateurs is an action-packed crime suspense story that pits a seasoned and ruthless kidnapper against an untested detective in 1980's San Francisco. It is a story of violence and rage that cannot be stopped until an untested, but talented female detective gets in the way, nearly paying with her life in the process. Ransoms Are For Amateurs will surprise you with its spooky storyline which takes the reader on a wild ride full of high tension, dangerous and evil conflicts, a love adventure, and a wicked twist at the end. The story in this novella is of a unique character, partially fantastic in nature, a twist from the typical crime mystery story. Readers will certainly enjoy fast pacing, complicated plot and unforgettable characters. James W. White is a California-based writer of historical and science fiction. He earned an MA in U. S. History. His professional career has included military service, teaching, research librarian and technical writing. Jim's stories have appeared in Datura Literary Journal, Chronoscope Magazine, The Wapshott Press and Scarlet Leaf Review.

The reign of the Tokugawa shoguns was a time of statebuilding and cultural transformation, but it was also a period of ikki: peasant rebellion. James W. White reconstructs the pattern of social conflict in early modern Japan, both among common people and between the populace and the government. Ikki is the first book to cover popular protest in all regions of Japan and to encompass nearly three centuries of history, from the beginnings of the Tokugawa shogunate in the 1590s to the Meiji restoration. White applies contemporary sociological theory to evidence previously unavailable in English. He draws on the long historical record of peasant uprisings, using narrative interpretation and sophisticated quantitative analysis. By linking the texture of conflict to the political and economic regime the shoguns created, he casts doubt on competing interpretations of a contained, orderly society.

MASTER LEADERS (THE ART OF INFLUENCE) This book is for courageous people who have the passion and vision to lead others to success, and have the ability to influence and inspire those around them to be the very best they can be. Within these pages the reader will discover new and just published information on how to start up a company, lead a company or resurrect a company that has fallen on hard times. The international business world craves for a person of boldness and understanding. A person that not only overcomes daily challenges and adversity, but one that utilizes wisdom, integrity and character to take any enterprise to profitability. This manual takes the reader through each step that's required in becoming a master leader. Master leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary dreams, deep determination, resolve and great self confidence. They are people who teach and encourage others to be successful, year after year, and deliver results regardless of the climates they encounter. Inside the cover of this book, the reader will discover: -The Master Leader (the true ruler of professional business) -How the Master Leader sets up the office -What to look for when hiring employees and salespeople -Giving meetings to motivate and inspire -The Master Leader ensures a team win -How the Master Leader "closes" when needed -Keeping the company successful and on track -The Master Leaders' "Guide for Continued Success" Let this book help direct you into the command centers of international business, and allow you to take positive control as a self-made sovereign. A true leader who is fair, understanding, respected and clothed in compassion.

As society becomes more global, many see the world's great cities as becoming increasingly similar. But while contemporary cultures do depend on and resemble each other in previously unimagined ways, homogenization is sometimes overestimated. In his compelling new book, James W. White considers how two of the world's great cities, Paris and Tokyo, may appear to be growing more alike--both are vast, modern, dominating, capitalist cities--but in fact remain profoundly different places. Tokyo's growth appears particularly organic, with a pronounced austerity and boundaries far less clear than those of Paris, which has been planned and manipulated constantly. Paris has a thriving center and a noticeably more contentious relationship with its nation, and its own suburbs, than Tokyo does. White explores how the roles of cities and urbanism in each society, and the balance between nature and artifice, account for some of these differences. He also examines the role of authority in each location and considers the way catastrophes, such as war, alter a city--as well as the role fear plays in a city's construction. While the author acknowledges that Tokyo is more physically fluid and superficially chaotic than Paris, he also demonstrates that it has an invisible order of its own (including a center that, contrary to most assumptions, is not empty at all). White depicts a Tokyo that relies less on the monumental, and is less influenced by government, than most cities in the West. Where the culture of Paris emphasizes clarity, exclusion, and marginality, the public spaces of Tokyo express ambiguity, inclusiveness, and impermanence. In the end, White makes us reconsider which city better deserves the name "City of Light." Nonetheless, he warns, several factors may combine to discourage Tokyo's international ascendance and even to threaten the future of provincial Japan. Thus it may be Paris, paradoxically, that is better poised to improve both its own position and its country's in the years ahead.

This compact book for laity introduces the major concepts of the Christian faith in a quick, easy-to-read fashion. The author begins with a brief overview of Christian history from biblical times to the present, with references to key people and events that shaped the faith. He follows this with sections on God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. For each of these topics, he sketches the basic ideas of the Bible and then shows how Christians in different centuries and contexts have applied these ideas to their own lives and circumstances.

This volume traces the manner in which, through perceptions of and interaction with both China and the states of the West, Japan's self-perception as an Asian nation, as a member of the international community, and as a product of its own history and current situation and goals, evolved during the period between mid-19th century and the end of World War II. Contents: Rival States on a Loose ReinóThe Neglected Tradition of Appeasement in Late Tokugawa Japan, Building the National Communications SystemóAdopting and Adapting Western Organizational Models in Meji Japan, Meji Japan and the Educational and Language Reforms in Late Ch'ing China, Shimazaki Toson's Before the DawnóHistorical Fiction as History and as Literature, Forecasting a Pacific War, 1912-1933óThe Idea of Conditional Japanese Victory, Japanese Policies and Concepts for a Regional Order in Asia, 1938-1940, Prophet Without HonoróKiyosawa Kiyoshi's View of Japanese-American Relations, Friend or FoeóThe Ambivalent Images of the U. S. and China in Wartime Japan, A Matter of TranscendenceóWar Experiences and the Transformation of Japanese and American Fighter Pilots, EpilogueóNational Identity, National Past, National Isms.

A Stanford University Press classic.